HALO : WHITE HOODS
by FAILbro777
Summary: With Spartans becoming redundant after years of service and the new model VIIs not performing to the standards of previous generations, the UNSC is on a new endeavour to make something to replace them. Another look back in history reveals a still running blood line of assassins, might they be the answer? NOTE: characters listed are only mentioned, not actually a major role
1. Prologue and Begginings

HALO

WHITE HOODS

Prologue

As children, we are all told stories of super soldiers. Men and women who wear suits of armour covered from head to toe in metal. One time, long ago, they were all men, Knights. Before them, Spartans, we all know the story of the 300. Before them who knows?

Today we also have Spartans, however they are much different from the 300 we all know of. Those 300 wore crude breastplates and red cloaks. They donned shields and their main weapon was a spear with a sword on their hip. Helmets with red crests .Our Spartans now are so much different. The latest versions, Spartan VIIs quick to recruit and mainly just extremely good soldiers from good backgrounds, mostly ODST, given suits to give them faster reflexes and strength . Before them we had Spartan IIIs they went through some bio-engineering in the form of injections to increase bone and muscle strength and also improve reflexes. However these two types of Spartans were not our best and only used in the desperate times of the Human-covenant war and later the human-covenant-forerunner war. They were cheap, relatively easy to "make". However lacked a lot of the strength and reflex speed that Spartan IIs had. These were the actual super soldiers, said to have lightning fast reflexes and problem solving skills. Able to take out legions of covenant soldiers with extreme efficiency and accuracy. However they were shrouded in secrecy and later controversy after it was discovered how they were created.

74 children abducted no older than 6 years old, from day one trained and treated like real soldiers. Shouted at, made to run miles and take part in challenges a 30 year old ODST with 7 years of experience would struggle to do. They were run through their paces and pushed to near breaking point. They were indeed taught actual subjects as well. At first stories, included in which was the story of the 300 and how they went up against a whole army, however it wasn't for fun, it was to teach strategy. Many lessons were taught many challenges completed. After a few years of training they were put through an augmentation process. The class of 74 children was reduced to 33 fit enough to serve, the rest where either killed by the procedure or left incredibly mutilated and de-formed, some having to live in neutral buoyancy tanks of liquid due to the risk of death if weight was applied to them. One of these Spartans became legend. Spartan 117. John. Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy, shortened to simply Master Chief or The Chief.

They are all dead now. Over 70 years ago The Chief died. The UNSC decided they needed something new. The new Spartan models made do with the end of the wars and some of the reclamation of the formally massive human empire but they are being spread thin and becoming less efficient at their tasks due to more and more shortcuts being taken to try and make they quicker.

This is when the UNSC look back into history again and took inspiration from another group in history. The Assassins. They codenamed the operation to create a Spartan who can fight like an assassin "White Hood". The task was not that big in terms of the first try at making Spartan IIs but certainly massive compared to current events.

I

Beginnings

"Officer on deck!" the ODST sentry shouted as Commander Davies walked in the door. He was a tall man. 6 feet and 3 inches. Broad shoulders and impeccably dressed. His hair shaved into a neat crew cut and his face clean shaven. His hair would have been a dark brown in colour but it was really too short to tell. He had chiselled features, a sharp mouth with thin lips from years of pressure on parades. Davies had a certain air about him. Everything seemed to run smoother with him around, weather that be a calming effect or a distinct fear of the man it was hard to tell. He dressed very formally, a grey jacket and trousers. Polished black shoes to the point you could literally see you face in them. He wore white gloves and had the Commander insignia embroidered onto his sleeves.

The room stood up. Everyone was ridged upright, arms to their sides and looking straight forwards. One or two pairs of eyes glanced over to the Commander but quickly snapped back straight as he spoke. "At ease people" His voice deep and echoing. The sort of voice that depicts authority. That voice you imagine narrating an epic battle. Of course he has done this, many meddles and campaign ribbons lay on his neatly pressed grey jacket. The room relaxed, as if the air was one moment solid rock and impossible to move in, the next normal oxygen and nitrogen with traces of other gasses.

Commander Davies sat at the head of the table and tapped a touchpad on the table. A figure came to life on the Holo Pad. An AI. The room glowed in a slight blue hue from the figure. The room sat down and the AI spoke, "Good evening Commander Davies. The task you set me to has been highly successful. Shall I display the information for you now?" Davies took a moment to reply "no thank you Tia, I need to brief everyone first" The figure look around to see the whole room, her hair was long, not a legs length away from the floor she stood on. It moved as if there was a wind blowing from her left hand side and fluttered slightly. She took the form of Eve, however named herself Tia strangely enough, and she never mentioned any religious context in any of her work. "Yes Commander, I feel the complexity of the information may even confuse you, so helping hands would be good" she turned her head back to the commander and flickered off.

The remaining 20 heads at the table lie confused about what just happened. These were top bods at the UNSC. Scientist, Historians and even members from the Security Council. It was rumoured an ONI official was also in the group, but no-one knew who.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Commander Davies started, "I have called you here today to discuss a possible concept for a new super soldier to work alongside the current Spartans and maybe in future replace them making Spartans more of an ODST type of soldier. By this a mean they will be specialised forces for quick response and medium priority missions, whereas the new thing will be for high priority, black-listed missions."

Every man and woman at the table leaned forward, engaged by this introduction, their previous confusion slightly lifted. They had been called up out of the blue with no information given as to why. Save one man. This man was the head of the newest Spartan VII program and was obviously not impressed to hear his unit may eventually become mere door sentries shouting "Officer on deck!" as the ODST did earlier. This man was a Spartan VI once. He had a large scar going down his eyebrow and across his eye, this eye was also glazed over. Obviously he was partially blind, although his strategic brilliance in previous ops gave him a fighting chance with the UNSC, he was first made SVI Strategic Commander and then head of the SVII project. He kept the style of a soldier though. He dressed somewhat informally, wearing greyscale digital camouflage trousers and a grey T-shirt with the UNSC insignia on the left breast and the SVII logo on the right. He had no head dress on, instead it was on the table in front of him, a grey digital camouflage cap. His name was Gunnery Sergeant Anderson. He has such a low rank because he refuses promotion, however he is given the position a Command Sergeant Major would have.

Anderson leaned forward after a few seconds of deliberation. He spoke up "Commander, Sir, are you suggesting there is something better than my Spartans? Better than Spartan 117?" The various members around the tabled stated to murmur and converse. Was there something better that Master Chief? He had died over 70 years ago but his methods are used in training to this day via holographic projection of actual combat scenarios. A lot of the current Spartans were almost up to his standard too.

With little hesitation Commander Davies spoke simply, cleanly and without question. "Much better. The Chief was a legend, no-one will live him down, he will always be top dog but he is dead, as I said, a Legend. There is no-one as of current that equals him. I believe I have found something that might. Tia, bring up Holo-image one please."

A hooded man appeared on the Holo pad. He was armed with a sword, a dagger. 5 throwing knifes. He had only minimal armour, vambraces and greaves. His hood had a peak and most of his face was not visible by the shadow cast by the hood. "Animation one please Tia" The man's left hand moved from a fist and a blade protruded from his left vambrace.

Anderson looked estranged "you are saying replace a Spartan with some guy in a hood with a sword? This is ridiculous!" He stood up to leave "Sit down Gunnery Sergeant!" a man on the right hand side of the table bellowed. "I am interested in this concept, Please carry on with your presentation Commander" Anderson sat down and crossed his arms obviously unhappy about being put in his place. Davies nodded to the man, he did not know his name nor rank.

"This is Altair. He was Syrian born and a member of the Levantine Brotherhood of Assassins and served as a mentor form 1191 until his death in 1257" The holo image exploded to show the separate parts of what Altair wore. His cloak and hood, belt, sword, dagger, throwing knifes and hidden blade. "The main and signature weapon of the assassins was this," the rest of the image faded out as the hidden blade zoomed and enlarged into the centre of the table. "This weapon is completely concealed inside the vambrace of the assassin and withdrawn by a pull on this mechanism. Later on in history, Ezio Auditore da Firenze became an assassin. He served as a mentor from 1503 to 1512. He has a direct heritage to Altair and also had a hidden blade. Furthermore Ezio knew Leonardo da Vinci and actually received help from him. The original assassins had to have their left ring finger cut off in order for the blade to pass through the fist. Ezio found Leonardo and the blade was adapted so this bodily adjustment was no longer needed. He also donned a second blade on his right hand." The image of the blade tilted vertically and zoomed out to reveal it was now on another man. Also cloaked white with red trimmings and a large insignia on his belt. "The insignia you see on his belt is that of the Italian assassins. From what we can gather there are many different branches of assassin. Tia, Image two please"

Various images flew across the table, all with the basic triangular shape of the original assassin logo and each had a name of a country underneath. "Now this one is different" Davies pointed to the logo on the black background with a skull in the middle "This is the Black Flag. It is the logo of one Edward Kenway. Kenway was a pirate, hence the black flag and skull. But he was trained by assassins. He also shares direct heritage to Altair and Ezio in turn." The image zoomed out again and a ship's mast grew from the table the flag at the top. Once fully zoomed out a man was seen on the deck at the wheel. He had ragged blond hair and wore mostly blue and black. His hood was a cream colour and didn't have a peak.

"From what we can gather about Kenway is that he was somewhat a loose cannon of the Assassins, excuse the pun. His hood has no peak and he bears no obvious insignia. However this is the guy who caught my interest on my journey through time." The image zoomed on the mad and his arms raised spread eagle. Everyone around the table seemed mesmerised by the intricacy of Davies' research. "Explode the image Tia" The man was stripped of his clothing and diapered. His clothing also faded out and the image was left with just his weapons and holsters. "As you can see he has 4 flintlock pistols, Sub-animation one Tia" An animation and the far end of the table of Kenway boarding a ship and expertly using his pistols to kill four enemy soldiers in 4 shots. The table sat back at the sheer art of the movements. Perfect timing, exceptional aiming without even looking and just pure perfection. Anderson was also impressed as this was a hard thing to achieve for even a Spartan. "He also carries dual cutlasses and a pair of hidden blades." The images faded out and Tia reappeared. Her hair flowing even more now.

Davies asked "is there any questions before I continue?" Three hands raised. One Historian, one Scientist and the chap Davies didn't know the name of. "Yes, Mr. West?" Mr. West was an established scientist and had worked on the development of experimental armour systems to improve the Spartans, he was obviously going to ask something majorly confusing to try and through Davies off. "Errrmm, Sir, how exactly do you propose this to work? I mean the current Spartan systems seem too bulky to achieve that degree of movement, flexibility and accuracy. And shrinking them down isn't that simple." Davies was indeed taken back by this question, however he had already planned for a question of this nature. "How will it work?" Davies asked rhetorically "I don't know, but that is why we have people like you and AIs like Tia to work it out. I proposed the idea and I will find subjects and train them with what I know. But please listen to the rest of the presentation and I'm sure you will have some ideas" The historian put his hand down, the unknown man still had his up. "I didn't quite catch you name sir?" Davies said looking at the man. "My name is classified but I will tell you I work of ONI. This is a very interesting concept. I'd be interested on seeing this through. Can you show me what you think the final product may look like?" Davies was shocked by the man's statement, he didn't think that anyone would be interested in the look of the project he planned on, let alone an ONI bod…

AUTHORS NOTE:

New facebook page, like and follow if you're interested in this story. Updates on chapters and next release will be updated on the page + its easier for me to post onto.

/HaloWhiteHoods


	2. 4 Children

II

4 Children

10 years after the concept for the White Hoods had been established, ONI and other intelligence comities tracked down the full ancestry of Edward kenway, Ezio Auditore and Altair. And had also tracked their heritage through time, past many dead end blood lines and finally to the very top of the tree. 4 children, none of them directly related. But they did live on the same planet… Same country…. Same city… They even went the same school. It was too good to be true. Then the hitch was found: they didn't know about their heritage, their families for at least 10 generations had forgotten their past and no longer even acknowledged their legendary bloodline. Explaining to fully grown adults would be hard enough with that situation, let alone 10 year old children. There was only one choice, they had to do the unthinkable again. Abduct the children and replace them with clones… Davies punched the desk. "No! There must be another way! Tia, recalculate the odds that there will be some trace of assassin left in those children" Tia's hair bloomed up and surrounded her head in a halo of hair as a million calculations were conducted. "0.05% chance sir, I have also calculated the best possible test, would you like to hear it?" the Commander hadn't shaved properly in a few days, he scratched his stubble "Yes, anything"

"Well, first we show the children pictures of the 3 major assassins, Altair, Ezio and Edward. We then show them various animations of them in combat and ask what they think of them men. Then we ask if they would like to be like these men and present them with a small knife inscribed with their name and the assassin logo. Odds of success 40%" Davies though for a moment then a spark of inspiration hit him "Tia, you know how the assassin log changed through time depending on country?", "Yes sir", "Lets design one for the UNSC." Tia's hair stopped dead and slowly fell back to its normal wind swept look, "Done Sir, on screen now" On the screen lay the assassin logo with the UNSC Eagle in the centre. Written up both sides lay the words "White Hoods" and the curved feature at the bottom was replaced by a wreath. "Perfect, but change the wreath for the original curved bit, I think it looks better" the imaged flicked and changed. Then started spinning around slowly. "Get it engraved onto 4 knifes, each of unique design to represent each child, don't forget there is a girl among the group; be a little creative with hers." "Yes sir, is that all" The commander seemed pleased with himself. "One last thing, have a ship ready for me to get to Earth and have a Pelican readied for transport to said ship" "done sir, UNSC Fear Naught is in close orbit and will take you to earth, as for your Pelican it is already on the landing pad" The commander started for the door "Yes, thank you" The door hissed open and the Commander walked out. Tia looked over at the logo and 5 knifes appeared on screen. One had a slight curve to it and had a widened tip, almost like a machete, this one was for Jordan. The one next to that was slightly longer and perfectly straight almost like a miniature katana, Kyle's. The third was a traditional combat knife with a more pronounced curvature at the end, Max's. The final pair were for the girl. They were very strange in the sense that they weren't strictly knifes. They were designed to curved around the fist and extend out into a point. They were elegant and very smoothly curved and came to a point far from the end of the fist these are for Leticia. "One last touch" Tia grabbed an apple from thin air and took a bite and at that instant the newly designed logo appeared on each blade close to the handle. Tia took another bite and the images disappeared, sent off to Earth's nearest blacksmith to the children's location.

The UNSC Fear Naught is the 3rd Infinity class vessel to be created by the UNSC. Although it is mostly used for transport between star systems. With another 6 ships of the same type it is easy enough for them to cover most of the universe. Due to the civilian nature of the Fear Naught, most of its weapon systems were replaced by extra luxury rooms and cryo chambers. However it still had all of its point defence cannons, 200 Archer missile pods, 200 Rapier missile pods, 400 Howler missile pods, 2 MACs and 5 Strident Class Heavy frigates, so it can still hold its own in a battle if it came across one.

Davies' pelican landed in the starboard landing bay. Davie's didn't particularly like star ships but they were the only way to travel light years in seconds. He headed straight for the bridge to meet the captain. He took the elevator up and an AI greeted him "hello Commander Davies, I am Arawn and I will be taking care of you on your journey." Davies was intrigued. He'd never actually been on an Infinity class vessel before but he was impressed by the way the AI moved with him, he'd only used a stationary AI before, normally in office or on the bridge of a star ship itself. "Thank you Arawn, Please inform Captain Gray of my arrival please" "Already done Sir." The elevator doors opened and a man with greying hair stood in in the doorway. His black uniform was pressed flat and he was clean shaven. His hair was thinning but that did not draw your eyes away from the colourful array of campaign ribbons on his jacket. "Commander Davies! I've heard lots about you, you are somewhat a mythical man in the UNSC now. Getting an ONI bod on your side, you must have shown them something really promising for our future." Davies laughed and walked out of the elevator. He certainly didn't feel mythical with his rough demeanour. "Yeah I did show them something pretty special. I can only show you a couple of pictures though, it is mostly top secret." "Understandable Sir, Shall we get moving then you can show me?" Davies leant against the command console he wondered what the children would make of what he could show them… "Yes Captain. Unfortunately your crew cannot see it so they will have to leave the room" There was a moments silence in the room. "All right. Make best speed for Earth, we will slipspace jump in 2 hours. For now you guys can have a break, half an hour and back here" The crews hands danced across the terminals and keypads calculating speed, trajectory, all that other science stuff Davies wasn't interested in and then left with a salute. "Arawn access file White_Hoods in directory Experimental_Projects" The AI followed the orders and an alert appeared on screen "restricted access, red-level clearance required, place input password and take retinal scans for everyone in the room. All AIs must be turned off whilst browsing files" Davies picked up a data pad and typed in his password followed by a retinal scan. Gray deactivated Arawn and took a retinal scan. "Accepted, Access granted for 10 minutes. Eyes only" Gray was surprised by this series of events. "You weren't kidding were you?" Davies looked at Gray "I never do"

He bought up the image of Edward kenway and a Spartan II. He also found and played the animation of the various assassins in combat. "This is what we are doing, we are taking these assassins and combining them with Spartans. But here's the hitch, there are not many of the bloodline left. 4 to be exact. Luckily we found them. That's what we are going to" Gray sat down on his chair. "How effective do you think they will be in combat?" Davies enlarged the animation he showed at the table 10 years ago of Edward boarding the ship and played it "Very effective, this is an assassin named Edward. And here is Master Chief. I prepared a render with the two models combined and fused into one person. Here is a simulated combat scenario taking the assassin combat and combining it with specifications and combat of a Spartan II."

The animation showed a hooded Spartan with a white shoulder cloak run into a building filled with 30 Forerunner Knights. The Character sprints at the first Knight and snaps it's neck whilst reaching for his pistol and unloading a full magazine into its shoulders. Two Knights swing for his head, He ducks and roles grabs another Knight's Scattershot and one-handed shoots it at the dis-armed knight. He ducks down and throws his arm out, 5 blue streaks stab into 5 other knights the wounded Knights carry on forwards toward the Character. 5 explosions erupt from inside each of the Knights, taking 2 others out with the splash damage He draws a sword and duals on Knight back into a group, stabs him and punches the sword through the Knight's body. The power behind the punch was enough to send it through 5 more and halfway into the wall behind them. A Knight grabs his cloak, but with a swift turn and a flick of his wrists two blades protrude from his wrists. He dances around the back of the knight and stabs him 7 times clean in the back. A Knight Charges at him covering 20 meters is less than a second. The Character runs forwards also and upper cuts the knight. The Knight is lifted from the floor and into the ceiling where he is stuck. 3 Knights charge at once. He slides between the legs of the middle one and throws 2 rope darts up at the ones either side and stabs the other ends into the ground made of solid concrete. These two are now stuck by the length of the rope. The middle Knight recovers and draws his Incineration Cannon and aims. The Character jumps out of the way as 3 nights behind him run into the path of the deadly projectile. He grabs the corpse off the roof and launches it at the Knight with the cannon. The two knights on ropes try running for the character but are held fast by the ropes, they draw Suppressors and spray the room. The character pulls his cloak over his body and the shots are scattered across the room some even hitting the two knights, at the reload he runs and clothes lines both Knights with his blades creating gaping wounds in their sides, the 8 remaining Knights pull up their binary rifles and aim, the lasers dancing on the characters body. He throws himself forward into the middle of the group, 2 Knights killed by friendly fire, the Knight closest to him tried to lunge at him but not before having his legs taken out and his chest stamped on so hard it crushes into a thin sheet. The 5 remaining Knights realise their losses and disappear into nothing. This all happened in the space of 5 minutes

Gray was obviously extremely impressed "And this is concept or actual predicted ability?" Davies tipped his head back and forth "A little of both to be honest. The odds are calculated by my AI, Tia, using statistics from Master Chief's previous engagements and combination moves used by both the assassins and the Chief. The odds of that actually happening in real life are unlikely seeing as having 30 Forerunner Knights in one place is unheard of. However it shows a good representation of combined skill." Gray was intrigued "indeed… The crew will be back soon, you'd better get ready for slipspace." "Thank you Captain," Davies said as he closed the files and logged out of the server "See you soon." Gray sat as his chair and accessed the ships system information "you too, Commander."

Commander Davies stepped into the elevator and requested for H Deck. The door closed and the Commander relaxed. Soon he will be on Earth and starting his mission to combine Assassins and Spartands


	3. Earth

III

Earth

As the UNSC Fear Naught exited slipspace, a blue planet appear in the near distance with a solitary moon. This was of course Earth. Home to most of the UNSC's top men. ONI is based here and the planet is guarded by its own branch of star ships known as the "Home Fleet"

Commander Davies woke up and stood from his form-fitting gel bed. He rolled his head around both directions. Three satisfying audible pops resonated from his neck. Davies then proceeded to click all of his knuckles. "Arawn, have a Pelican readied for my transit to earth" Davies leaned back and stretched his arms forwards whilst letting out a short groan. "Yes sir, would you like a small squad of bodyguards with you?" Davies walked over to his wardrobe and looked inside, he picked out a pair of dark blue jeans and a casual white shirt. A partially polished pair of black shoes suited the outfit quite well. "No, I want to keep this casual, maybe one lightly armed other wearing similar clothing to me."

On Earth, the Pelican landed at Crew's Hill Space Dock. The place was buzzing with activity, Pelicans and Shortsword fighters conducting training in the nearby country side. Davies and his second man disembarked from the pelican onto the landing pad. The pelican was then taken to the hanger for a refit before also being used for combat training. Davies however was here to find the 4 potential assassin children and get them into training… hopefully at least. Davies and Sergeant Cooper walked through the main lobby and out the front door passing various security gates, stop and search posts and metal detectors, once outside a pre-arranged taxi came and picked them up to take him to the local blacksmiths. Obviously blacksmithery has changed over time, but it is still an essential part of life and the UNSC, otherwise who else would make all those decorative panels on ship interiors? The journey was about 10 minutes long, the streets of London hadn't changed much since the 2000's however some changes could be seen, for a start, tram lines ran all over the pace, and there were some overhead by-passes to make transit through the city easier. Davies and Cooper hardly talked the whole journey, and even if they did, Davies couldn't talk about Project White Hood to him anyway, they were also here under cover so military talk was a no go. On the pelican however Davies did brief Cooper on the basis of the mission: find the children, establish a better personality profile, establish social groups (if they knew each other or not was another factor), follow them home and approach them with parents present. Simple, Davies would have his mission done and Cooper would get a nice pay-off, cR 500,000.

The taxi stopped. Davies and Cooper got out, paid their fare and walked inside. Davies approached the desk where a man was standing. The man at the desk had a name tag, "DAVE", he was shorter that Davies, although not by much. His hair was thinning and he had a roughly shaved goatee. He wore an old stained white t-shirt, soiled and hole-ridden jeans and a brown leather apron. "Hello there!" Dave spoke in a heavy Scottish accent with a slight husk, "Welcome to the finest blacksmith in London, how may I help you?" Davies and Cooper walked up to the desk and stood a moment. Davies pulled out an ID card and displayed it to the man "We are here to pick up a set of knives, they should be under the name Davies." The blacksmith pondered his memory for a moment "Oh yes! Beautiful blades they are, a nice insignia on them too, is that new or just a one off type thing?" Davies looked the main square in the eyes "That's not for civilian ears my friend. What's the cost of the knifes?" The man was surprised by this response "errrrm… 500 Credits each, so 2,500 Credits total" Davies paid the man and collected the knifes, each was a piece of art. The twin blades for Leticia were stunning, Davies wouldn't mind a pair himself.

The children's school was just down the road from here, Davies and Cooper walked, talking casually. Cooper was originally from around here, just half an hour's drive away near the river Thames. He had always wanted to be a marine from a young age but never though he's get this far in his career. Mostly because he thought he would be on the frontlines mostly. They got to the school, Protector of Earth Primary School. The pair walked in and displayed ID cards to the receptionist and handed her a note.

UNSC NAVSPECWAR

Start/

This is a letter from the UNSC Naval Special Warfare granting permission for one Commander Davies and one Sergeant Cooper to observe 4 children with the names of,

Jordan Crux

Kyle Lorde

Maximillian Colebee

Leticia Young

These personnel are cleared to observe and use photography to document and record findings, any misconduct by the persons observing will result in a court marshalling and being removed from the UNSC, please report suspected misconduct to the UNSC security committee.

Admiral Barnes

ONI

End/

The receptionist was almost scared by the appearance of two tall men with UNSC ID cards and a letter from ONI stating they can observe 4 children. After a short hesitation and a double take at the men she managed to muster the will power to simply say "Okay, follow me" she got up and shakily left the desk. They walked through corridors and up one set of stair and past several classrooms along the way.

The 4 children were in 2 separate classrooms, conveniently enough they were either side of the same corridor but 100 yards apart. Davies looked inside classroom C4 and saw Leticia and Jordan they were in a class with about 25 other pupils, all of which 10 years old or older. Cooper was observing Kyle and Max in Class D3 they were about 8 years old. Leticia and Jordan sat on the same table. They seemed to be good friends. Talking frequently and with friendly gestures between them. Max and Kyle seemed to be friends, however a competitive streak lie in them both, each were observed looking over the others shoulder for answers, laughing when the other got something wrong and smirking when they go something right. Davies and Cooper could only see the backs of their heads however. The Receptionist pointed the children out to the men, however they would have to wait until morning break to get a proper look at their physical attributes.

An hour rolled by, 2 cups of tea drunk and a pack of biscuits devoured. There was a deafening bell and an almighty roar down the corridor as hundreds of children rushed to be the first on the playground. Davies and Cooper walked to the staff room and watched out the window. The staff took no notice of them, they had no reason to. Davies spotted Leticia again. Her hair was a light brown with a slightly ginger hue near the tips. It was curled into light twists, freckles covered her face and she had a cheeky smile about her. Her uniform consisted of the normal pleated skirt and white shirt with an ironed collar. She walked across the playground to a small group of girls. They all started giggling when she arrived.

Jordan was on the opposite side of the 200 meter playground. He was playing football and was actually pretty good. Kicking the ball between other player's legs, kicking it into the goal from half a pitch away and running around like a loon. He wore simple grey cargo shorts and a white polo shirt. He had a long unkempt side fringe which he kept flicking out of his eyes every now and then. He didn't smile often as he was too engrossed in his game. Kyle and Max were sitting at a bench eating their sandwiches and playing holo-chess. Max was winning but it was a tight game. Kyle was taller than Max, but slightly chunkier, although not much, both boys were fully engaged in the game. Max made a move and took Kyle's Queen. Max was winning now. They both had similar hair, but of different colours. They both had short hair spiked up into a rough faux hawk, Kyle's was black, and Max's was a dirty blonde.

Lunch ended, Max ended up winning by one piece. Jordan's team won the football and Leticia hadn't stopped laughing all lunch, save for when she had to drink because she'd been laughing too much. Davies and Cooper sat down with another cup of tea and discussed what they had observed. "Jordan seems like a good leader and Max is a real strategist" Cooper said taking a biscuit and dipping it in his tea. "Yes I agree. Kyle also, he only lost by one piece and even then, one more move he could have won." Davies said as he also dipped a biscuit "Leticia though. I only saw her laughing all break" Davies forgot about the biscuit and it fell into his tea "Damn it…." His face screwed up as he looked at his tea in total disbelief. Cooper laughed, here have another. We should be heading to the parents soon to discuss with them before the children get home." Davies took the biscuit and agreed. Today is going to be a long day, and its only 11:00am

Author's Note

Hey guys, sorry for the delay on submitting this chapter, I've been quite busy with school work etc. Don't expect any improvements in times until half terms and holidays either, if anything it'll just get worse with exams coming up and I'm sorry but they take priority.

On a lighter note, please follow and review this story and let me know what you think about it, it's hard to write a story with no feedback about what people like about it.

Thanks for reading and I hope you are enjoying it so far :3

FAILbro777


	4. Parental Consent

IV

Parental Consent

Letters were sent home by the school to Jordan, Max, Kyle and Leticia's parents a day prior to the arrival of Davies and Cooper requesting a parent-teacher meeting (insisting that no trouble had been cause by the children of course). The parents all arrived on time, with their respective children, at 6:00pm on the dot. They were escorted to the head teacher's office and offered refreshments. Tea or coffee for the adults, juice or water for the kids.

Commander Davies entered the room with Sergeant Cooper following, Davies took a seat behind the large faux mahogany desk and cooper stood by the door. "You may be wondering why you are here and why I am here instead of the head teacher." Davies looked at each of the 8 parents individually as he spoke. They seemed shocked at his demeanour. "I am Commander Davies of the UNSC and I am here as part of a top secret operation to establish a new militant force and special operations squad for the UNSC Navy."

"What does this have to do with 10 year old children?" Kyle's father piped up, the other parents nodded in agreement. "This isn't another Spartan project is it?" by now Spartan projects were very widely known about. And with the classified files about the original Spartans becoming unclassified a lot of controversy surrounded anything to do with children, the military, and Spartans. "Mr. Lorde, this is far bigger than a Spartan project and far less risky. Let me explain" Davies reached under the desk for a briefcase containing a holo-prjector, he picked it up and placed it on the desk in front of him. After opening the lid, he typed an 8 digit code into the keypad "4S5A5S1N " The hologram displayed the logo of the White Hoods which spun around on its axis. "This is the logo of this branch of operations I have said about. The original logo consisted of just this", the logo was stripped away to the bare assassin logo, "this is the logo of the Assassins. A group of men and women who used various weapons and methods of combat to kill their enemies known as "Templars". However, both the Assassins and Templars mostly died out during the 2100's."

"I still don't see how this has to do with my 10 year old son" Mr. Lorde said, silently judging the commander as if he was crazy.

"This is what it has to do with your child, Mr. Lorde" A family tree showed up on the hologram, starting from Altair, down to Ezio, Edward, Hatham and Connor, then Desmond and finally Kyle Lorde. Another animation zoomed out from Kyles name and into Jordan's "And you Mr. Crux" Maximillian and Leticia's name also were highlighted. "Each of your children are direct descendants of Assassins. This makes them assets to us, and seeing as they are the only surviving descendants of the assassins we need them." An animation showed every name other than the parents and children's names crossed out. "You may be asking why we aren't recruiting you adults. Because you're old simply put. Not as flexible to change, you won't be able to be trained as effectively as children, you have settled into a routine, your children have not. They are imaginative, you are not. It's just how getting older works, the position of this job is not open to anyone but your children" Davies was careful to emphasise the "but". "Let me demonstrate what I mean"

By this stage in the meeting, the children had lost interest and were more mesmerised by the shiny hologram that meant nothing to them, the contents of their nostrils or grain of the wood on the desk. "Jordan, Kyle, Max, Leticia, look at this for me please" Davies asked. The children immediately looked up and found interest in the events unfolding before them. Davies pressed a button on the desk and the lights went off. The holo-projector grew brighter and an image of Altair appeared on the hologram. "Aww he looks so cool!" Jordan exclaimed, it was clear Jordan would take the lead of this squad. Altair started running, jumping, vaulting over obstacles and finally leaped off of a building and into a bale of hay. Leticia gasped "where'd he go? Is he alright? Does he need help?" Davies took note of this: Leticia is compassionate and caring, probably would be good as the team medic.

Out of the hay bale jumped Ezio, he stood for a moment as the camera panned around him and then took off, full sprint at a guard. His hidden blade engaged at the flick of his wrist and the guard was killed cleanly. The body faded out of the scene and Ezio carried on running, more parkour sequences followed by various air assassinations and throwing knifes. Ezio stopped on a high roof above a court yard where a large group of soldiers stood, he whistled and a rain of arrows struck each guard sending them all crumpling to the ground. "Air strike inbound" muttered Maximillian, Kyle giggled. The parents were all equally impressed by the assassin's movements as the children were. Ezio dived into a pool of water behind him and out swam Edward.

The scene changed to that of the Jackdaw, Edwards's ship. He climbed up the Jacobs ladder and took position behind the wheel. A Spanish galleon glided into scene. The jackdaw turned and unloaded a broadside into the galleon. Jordan, Kyle and Maximillian gaped in awe at the firepower, Leticia gasped. Fires broke out throughout the galleon and smoke filled the holographic air. The ships came along side each other and a boarding party swung from the jackdaw onto the Spanish galleon. Edward was among the party. In seconds, half the defending crew where dead, their bodies faded out as they died. Edward had personally killed at least half of these. As the scene continued Spaniards dropped their weapons and surrendered or jumped overboard.

The camera panned onto Edward's face and morphed into Connor's. Connor ran through the woods, jumping through trees, diving off of a mountain into a deep river bellow and climbed out onto a horse. He galloped down a road, bow in hand, arrow ready to shoot. He drew back and fired the arrow at a rabbit while galloping at full speed, the precision was surgical. The horse wheeled around and Connor jumped down, he skinned the animal and fileted the meat, wrapping it in salt and paper and stuffing it into a saddle pouch. Connor tapped the horse and it ran off into the forest. A party of soldiers walked down the road that Connor had just rode down. Connor loosed 3 arrows hitting 3 soldiers square in the chest, their bodies faded away. The remaining 9 soldiers were alerted by the unseen bodies of their comrades falling to the floor. The Jaeger amongst the group charged Connor while the 8 rifle men took aim. Connor parried the jaeger, spun him on his heels and held him firm. 8 shots were fired, 4 centre mass hits, 1 headshot and a knee cap. 2 misses. The Jaeger dropped dead. The reload of the typical rifle at the time was clumsy and time consuming, Connor made capital and bounded towards the ranks, tomahawk out, hidden blade engaged and in the knife position. The first kill was smooth, tomahawk deflecting a clumsy swing of the rifle followed by a sweeping blow to his knee with the knife. The soldier fell, but was not dead. The second simply followed on smoothly, 180 degree spin, tomahawk to the rib cage, knife to the back, completing his spin Connor drove his blade into the fallen foe's skull. Two bodies faded out. One soldier ran for help. Connor threw a knife and it landed just above his left shoulder blade, the soldier went flying forwards with the momentum but faded before his body hit the ground. Two nimble soldiers played with Connor. He drew out a rope dart and threw it into one's knee, followed up by wrapping it around his neck and driving the other end into the soldiers opposite knee. Next he drew a double barrelled pistol and stabbed the other nimble soldier in the leg, followed up by a shot to the head, the next soldier died in much a similar way. The last 2 soldiers watch in awe at Connors movements. Smooth like a ballet but deadly as a hawk. Their awe was not long enjoyed, they were swiftly executed but a throwing knife to the neck. 12 soldiers dead, plus a rabbit for dinner later.

The animation sequence ended and the kids shared the same awe inspired look as the last two soldiers. Davies was certain they'd dream about this later. The parents looked shocked at the amount of killing they had just witnessed, and that their children had witnessed, but Davies could see they enjoyed it as much as the kids, perhaps even imagined themselves in a modern equivalent of that situation.

Ms Young was the first to speak (her husband had been killed in the dying days of the Human-Forerunner war, he was a Spartan VI, Leticia was born while he was away. In actual fact, she was born at the same moment he was shot dead, obviously they didn't know this) "While I watched that I felt as if I knew what was coming next… As if I could predict their movements like they were memories to me." Davies looked at her and smiled inside, he knew it had worked. Mr Lorde, Mrs Crux and Mr Colebee also agreed with her. Davies shot Cooper a sly smile and nod, his job was basically done. Kyle, Max and Jordan were already re-enacting the fight between Connor and the two nimble soldiers, obviously not with real weapons Jordan was the Assassin and Kyle and Max attacking him.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I have shown you what I can, now it is up to you, but before you go I have one last gift for your children, but seeing how the boys are acting at the moment I think its best I give them to the parents." Cooper handed the boy's parents the knives. Each one a master piece and each personalised to each child representing their attributes. Cooper asked Ms. Young to stay behind a short while after the others had left. The 3 sets of parents left, taking their children with them. No doubt to send them to bed and talk about the matter. They would later receive a letter from ONI explaining the exact circumstances of their children and what support would be available.

Davies knew from day one, as soon as he read the personality report on Leticia, that she was special. She had shown previous empathy to children of her own age, older and younger who were bullied or felt left out. She would try to get them involved. Obviously she had no father, but a part of him was left in her, despite never meeting.

He too showed compassion for anyone who was bullied or left out. He would literally risk his life to save any man who was left behind. "No man left behind!" he shouted as he sprinted towards a fallen soldier, hip firing his rifle into advancing enemy ranks. He grabbed the soldier and hoisted him to his soldier and ran to safety behind him, constantly supressing his enemy. Others had joined the supressing, but it wasn't enough. A Binary fired. The hard light penetrated his shields, helmet and skull, he was dead before he knew what hit him. Luckily he had thrown the soldier clear and into another Spartans arms literally seconds before he died (to give you an idea of how close it was, the soldier was still mid-flight when the Spartan know and 01707 Young died). Davies last words were "No man left behind", his dying action: saving a fallen soldier's life by risking his own. The effect of this was tremendous. From that point on, the motto his regiment changed simply to "Neminem reliquit".

Davies approached Ms Young and cleared his throat. In his hands he held a gold trimmed wooden box with the White Hoods logo engraved onto it and embellished with silver leaf. "Ms Young, it has been a long time since your husband dies, but I feel you ought to know this. You may have been told of his bravery and valour, but truly he was a great man. I met him once, long ago. Your daughter shares many qualities with him actually. This is the thing, your daughter is unique among the 3 other children I gathered here today. Both of her parents are directly related to assassins. You and Mr Davies are both direct blood relatives of Altair, Ezio, Edward and Connor. Another thing, your daughter was put into this world within seconds of your husband being taken out of it. I expect great things to come from your daughter, as you saw each of the other children received a gift, as has Leticia. To reflect her uniqueness two blades were made for her, twin blades representing her dual heritage. I hope you agree to my program, I assure you no harm will come to your daughter, I will personally take care of her in her father's memory." Davies handed over the box and saluted Ms Young. Leticia sat patiently and held up a little salute back.

"Thank you sir, I only have one condition on allowing you to take my daughter" Ms young said, holding back a choke

"What's the request?

"I come with you, I don't want to lose her, and I can't lose another person so close to me. It's been 10 years but it is still sore to think about. I cannot lose her"

"Yes ma'am, certainly, I shall see that a private quarters is provided, I'm sure a few luxuries could be arranged for the widow of an inspirational soldier and mother to the next generation of."

"Thank you sir."

Ms Young turned and walked out of the room, a tear about to form in her eye but Leticia piped up "Is it time to go home now mummy?" Ms Young broke a smile and ruffled her hair. "Yes my dear. Did you enjoy yourself tonight?" she replied. Their voices faded into the corridor, Davies thought he heard a yes followed by the recreation of the sound of swishing swords by Leticia followed by a laugh by Ms Young.

"Cooper, mission accomplished. Now for a decision for you: are you going to stay with me and follow this through to the end and train our little assassins or are you going to take your money and retire now?" Davies shot cooper a challenging look as if to say 'I know what you want to pick, but if you really want to retire properly, you better take the other option'

Cooper thought for a moment, weighing up the profits of each option and replied "I'll follow you to the ends of the universe sir, those boys may need another guy around to keep them settled around a star ship."

"Thank you sergeant, I'll see you are put in for promotion and moved to my regiment. Now we have some letters to write." With this Davies left the room and Cooper followed, they were going back to the Fear Naught to sleep. They would see the children again in a weeks' time.

Authors Note

Thanks those of you who have stuck with it for this time, I hope this chapter makes up for my lack of chapters over the past couple of months. I hope I have less spelling and grammar errors too, reading through my last chapters is a headache and correcting them will take too much time unfortunately so sorry for that :')

Anyway, thank you for reading and I hope you continue to read this story, I have no actual plan for the direction this is taking, it writes itself as I go along, although I'd consider it a success so far.

Thanks to HolyFurryFish for a PM suggesting an improvement, I will take that into account and implement your suggestions.

Again, thanks for sticking with this and I hope you enjoy the rest of the story (when it comes)

~FAILbro777


	5. A Letter Home

V

A Letter Home

Dear Mr and Mrs (Crux, Lorde, Colebee)

As you are aware you sons are bloodlines to Assassins and we have already approached you about this. The purpose of this letter is to tell you our intentions and terms and conditions of the custody of your children.

Your children:

-Will be treated with the up most respect for themselves and their needs.

-Will be fed 3 times daily and given regular breaks from training and lessons

-Will be taught and trained fully before being sent into any dangerous scenario

-Will only be sent into a dangerous scenario after the age of 18

-Will be given all the luxuries of home and more

You will be able to:

-Visit your children bi-annually for a week at a time (transport provided)

-Phone call your children every weekend

-Write letters, make video logs and send images (letters will be received 1 week – 1 month after initially being sent depending upon distance from earth, expect replies double sending time (2 weeks - 2 months) after letter being sent)

-You will be informed about our approximate distance from earth and any delay in sending mail. (Video logs will only be able to be made within the earth/ moon orbits, again you will be informed)

The children will have their own rooms. All rooms have a television, a personal computer, holo-projector for video displays, access to any movie ever release, en-suite toilet, adequate wash facilities, a suit display case and customisation bench (for making their armour personal to them (will only be issued at 16 when combat training is initiated into final phases)

List of recommended items for packing:

(Plenty = approximately 2 weeks supply)

-Plenty of underwear and socks

-Plenty of plain black t-shirts

-Plenty of trousers

-Plenty of casual/own clothes for recreation

-Swimming/water sports gear

-Personal hygiene supplies (including:

-Toothpaste/brush

-Shampoo/ shower gel

-Any personal hair products

-Wet wipes

-Towel

-Small Hand towel

-Flannel (washcloth)

-Any personal medication (to be handed to Commander Davies before departure)

-Shoes

-Trainers/ sports shoes

-Sportswear/ tracksuits

-Bed wear

It is also recommended any home comforts are packed (toy bears etc) along with at least 1 image of each of you parents, along with an image of all three of you together.

Lessons your children will be taught (Progressive as children age):

-English

-Maths

-Science (advanced Physics, basic chemistry and biology)

-Statistics

-Philosophy

-Basic psychology (how people interpret other's actions etc)

-War studies (including case studies of the 1st and second World Wars, Covenant war on earth, inner colony wars and the interplanetary wars)

-Strategy in combat

-Basic first aid

-Advanced first aid

-How to deal with serious injuries (to self and others)

-Martial arts (including Tae Kwan Do, Kick boxing, Krav Maga, Silat and Bukokai-Do)

-Weapons handling

-Marksmanship

-Specialisation into chose field of combat

-Camouflage and concealment

-How to read and use a map

-Technology studies

-Advanced computing skills

-Simulated combat scenarios

-And many more

Your children will have access to any of the following activities in free time:

-Swimming

-Gym

-Clubs (ranging from chess club to sports clubs)

-Arcade

-Flight simulators

-Games consoles

-Movies (on board cinema)

-Simulated parachute jumps

-Space walks (on cables attached to hull)

-Hobbies

-A workshop

-Internet

Your children will be well taken care of, each child will have 1 staff supervisor with them 12 hours a day to help with education and finding their way round the ship, as well as Commander Davies and Sergeant Cooper supervising lesson and allocated to 2 children at a time.

We hope you agree to our terms, if not please attach a list of possible needs and it'll be seen to that they are arranged. Also we hope you assist us in making your children feel at home on the ship, you will be granted a month's stay on the ship to get the children settled in, you will be sleeping in the same rooms for the 1st week (as well as attending lessons and free-time activities with them) on the 2nd week you will only be sharing a room and free-time activities, on the 3rd and 4th weeks just free time activities. By the end of the month it is hoped your children will be accustomed to their new environment and settled as to not be too distressed after you have left.

Thanks, Yours faithfully'

Commander Davies

Sign here to hand over custody of your children (all above terms will be adhered to after this point) and send to the return address

Sign: (Mother)...

Sign: (Father)...


	6. The Start Of Something

VI

The Start of Something

All of the parents signatures were received, all of the children were now fully in the custody of the UNSC, and the parents along for the months ride to settle their children in. There had been few requests on changes of Commander Davie's terms. The addition of a few free time activities like archery and horse riding (these were added, they might come in handy one day).

The UNSC Fear Naught was in geostationary orbit above London. It was so large you could see it from the launch pad. The rear of the ship had a large crest on it, the Omega symbol. This was once the headquarters of the Spartan VI Omega-1 team, however was now decommissioned. Soon this would be removed and the Whit Hoods logo would be put on. Davies requested it to be done in a semi-transparent material so that in the day it was a white logo, but at night it glowed blue, like a beacon of hope in the night for the area below, and also a fearful image for the enemies bellow.

"Wow mum, look at that!" Jordan craned his neck until it ached trying to stare at the magnificence of the star ship. "It's huge! Bigger than anything I've ever seen before!"

Mrs Crux looked down on her son and ruffled his hair laughing to herself "That's your new home, on board is everything you could ever want or need."

Jordan looked at his mum in amazement "Cool!"

Kyle and max were racing up towards the entrance to Crew's Hill Space Dock, almost tripping up the first step because they were looking up at the massive orbiting ship "Last one to the top is a looser!" shouted Max. Jordan, who was already at least 10 meters behind both Kyle and Max made a break for it and beat them both to the top, Kyle next with Max on par with him. Max grumbled under his breath "damn it…"

Mr and Mrs Crux, Mr and Mrs Lorde and Mr and Mrs Colebee were also mesmerised by the ship, such beauty, yet so much power. Blips of darkness could be seen buzzing around, like flies on a cows butt, some coming down to land at Crew's Hill, others just transporting around the ship, probably doing final checks on any repair and construction work while near a planet in case more needed doing.

The parents called their children as they approached the entrance to Crew's Hill. Out of the door walked Davies, Cooper Leticia and Ms Young.

"Glad to see you made it!" Davies called down the stairs the boys had just raced up. "Isn't she a beauty? Follow me and we'll get you on board" Davies turned on his heels and headed to the awaiting Pelican, the same one which originally bought him to earth and was then re-fitted for combat training, now re-fitted again for carrying passengers. The engines rumbled as the pilot prepared for take-off. The boys reached the top of the stairs for a second time before their parents and raced off to get the 'best' seats although really they were all the same. Mrs Crux jogged after them "come on!" she shouted to her husband and the other parents. They all started running for the pelican, almost revived into youth at the sight of a star-ship and their transport onto it, almost as if they were living a dream they all wanted but never had. Cooper bought up the rear and did a quick head count while running and boarding to ensure no-one was left behind. The doors closed and hissed as the air-lock was activated and the ship rose into the sky. Everyone on board was exited for what lay ahead. General chatter started amongst the passengers, mostly discussing what activities would be taken part in first.

"Feels good don't it?" Davies said to Cooper quietly "knowing that you are about to show a group of people the best time of their lives, and while doing so training the next generation of super-soldiers"

Cooper nodded in agreement, in reality he didn't really like pelican journeys, too fast for his liking. He felt exposed, he was used to vehicles with more armour… more fire power…. "Yeah, hopefully this endeavour will succeed and we will have the great honour of seeing these kids complete mission after mission.

On board the Fear Naught, the pelican landed in the starboard-3 landing bay, the airlock of the bay opening and allowing the pelican in and sliding shut behind it. The bay was a nest of activity, engineers, pilots and crew, ordinancemen, handlers and re-fuelers running around seeing to aircraft and their general activities. The back of the pelican dropped and Davies walked to the door, Cooper followed. The children were the first up, followed by swift calls from each mother "Come back here and hold my hand, don't want you getting lost now" Each child returned to their mothers side and held their hands, with the exception of Leticia who stayed nearby to Davies, and Ms Young was fine with this, they had already been on board one and had gone over ground rules with Leticia "stay near me or Commander Davies, do not wonder off on your own, always make sure there's an adult with you, it's a big ship" "Ok mum".

The group walked to a holographic projector near the wall, it sparked to life and a figure appeared. The figure was of course Arawn, The fear Naught's AI, but Davies didn't recognise it at first, he'd only ever heard its 'voice', Arawn took the form of an old man with a black beret, Field Marshal Montgomery of the Royal Tank Regiment from World War 2 was his actual form, but Davies did not know nor care.

"Afternoon all" It was now that it clicked in Davies head who it was "I am Arawn, the Fear Naught's AI, and I will be taking care of you for the foreseeable future."

Another image flickered on next to him, Tia, a familiar face to Davies, and one he was glad to see. Her hair started flowing in the invisible and unfelt wind, Arawn turned as if to see her and flickered off.

"And I am Tia, I am the specific artificial intelligence designated to take care of each and every one of your individual needs at the call of my name. I will also be your subject teach and overseer, parents, your children will be safe in my hands" Each parent was nodding, the children awe-struck by the glowing pint-sized figures of people who seemed mythical to them. "If you'd follow Captain Davies, you will be taken on a short tour of the ship followed by a virtual tour of the rest of it conducted in the Captains Office."

All eyes were on Davies as he walked into the doorway "follow me he said" Cooper hung to the rear again to make sure no-one got lost on their way.

The tour lasted half an hour, spanned 3 decks (of nearly 50) and over 110 rooms including S-deck (soon to be re-fitted for the White Hoods), the holo-simulator (where combat exercises would take place, as well as activities such as skydiving, golf, paintballing and running) and various other rooms, including the rooms of each of the children's rooms, the mess hall, the observation deck and the to-be-converted Omega-1 hanger.

The 'interactive' tour ended on the Captain's deck where the group met Captain Grey.

"Is this them?" he said to Davies "these are the four children you are going to turn into better-than-Spartan soldiers?"

Davies said matter of factly "Yes. They are." Addressing the group he changed his tone to a more relaxed one "This is Captain Grey, he is the Captain of this ship and will ensure you are comfortable in your rooms. If you need to contact him you can ask Tia or Arawn." Addressing the captain again he said "can you take us to your office to complete the tour?"

"certainly, this way" Grey led off to an elevator, separate from the one the group came up in, it was the private elevator directly down to the captains office, the mess hall and his room, so the Captain can be on deck as soon as possible if needs be.

The group stepped into the elevator and was taken down to the office, Tia and Arawn were projected in life-size versions of themselves in the room and paced around as if bored waiting for the group to arrive, Arawn occasionally pulling at his Beret to re-shape it over his head (indicating he was thinking) and Tia's hair occasionally flaring up in a wind and back down again as the pair re-calculated and took part in their own private, silent conversation, exchanging data about the ship, predicting ancient satellite paths (satellites launched in the 2,000s and later decommissioned as new advanced ones were made) and making calculations on random events, such as the likely-hood of the ship suddenly being sucked into a black hole large enough to engulf earth also (just a bit of AI banter). Any satellite on a collision course would be intercepted by a drone and taken back into the ship for potential 'spares and repairs'.

The elevator door opened and the group walked out, a hologram of the ship was displayed on the table and the virtual tour started, covering the rest of the rooms in the ship in brief detail, and more in depth when needed.

AUTHORS NOTE

This chapter is a little boring but I thought it was needed in the story just to further develop Arawn and the Fear Naught. The next chapter is going to be a jump forwards in time (maybe plus 1 year) with training already underway. If you have any ideas of what the White Hoods deck could look like (or any improvements at all for that matter) feel free to message me and I'll take it into consideration.

Thanks for reading

~FAILbro777


	7. Training

VII

Training

One year after the recruitment of the children, training was well underway. The four of them were learning skills much faster than anticipated, almost as if they already knew it all. English, Maths and all the sciences were completed (a full 3 years' worth) in 10 months, straight A's across the board with A* in English and biology from Leticia. They were now learning about Philosophy, war studies and strategies in combat. The children had settled into their new home nicely, the parents had left (save Ms Young) and there was hardly a peep. Letters, video calls and pictures of activities and the like were still exchanged, and the bi-annual visit was coming up soon.

"This is a basic flanking. In essence, you are trying to expose the enemies week side, IE, there sides or rear, to attack. This method is far more effective than the full frontal assault, as we saw in the video footage from the Great War, full frontal assaults are prone to machine gun fire and artillery strikes."

Tia was teaching, her hair was glowing bright and flowing in the 'wind', she spoke calmly and softly, almost as if telling the children a story for bed time. She had a certain way with the boys, they saw her almost like a mother. The room was darkened, but not completely. Light from the sun glared through the hazed windows of the lecture room, holograms dancing on the walls depicting images of men dressed in plain uniforms walking forwards to their ultimate and certain death, machine guns tracers and random artillery explosions littered the scene. The scene was a full frontal advance on a German trench in World War I. The scene flickered and changed.

"The Battle of Marathon in Greece, 490 BC. The citizens of Athens, Aided by Plataea, fought the Persian army commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. This was the first Persian invasion of Greece, and one very good example of a flanking. Moreover, a double flanking."

An animation showing blue and red rectangles representing the Athens citizens and the Persians. Persians were red. The red rectangles advanced towards the Greeks and formed into two ranks, the forward rank forming 2 rectangles, the rear in 3 rectangles. A further 2 rectangles moved around and into the front of the 2 ranks, forming a third. The blue single flank of 3 rectangles moved forwards. The central rectangle moved in and through the Persian lines, then fell back to safety, the 2 rectangles on the side curved into a U shape and attacked from the side.

"As you can see the Greeks attacked from the front and drew the Persians in land. The two Greek forces at the side then closed in and attacked from the side. Despite being hugely out-numbered, the Greek force won." Tia gestured as if to ask for questions.

"How if they were outnumbered?" asked Kyle

"Kyle, it's all well and good sending loads of soldiers at a single target, and occasionally this that will work, but your own losses will be heavy. That's what the Persians found out. The Greeks won because they attacked from more than one side at one time, panicking the Persians and destroying their morale."

"oh.."

"Tia, how do you apply this with a smaller force, a platoon of 4 squads of 12 maybe?" Jordan had shown an incredible advancement in leadership and strategic thinking, although he would almost always have his back side handed to him after a game of chess with Kyle. He was improving though.

"That's easy" a new animation showed up, 4 rectangles, each labelled, "Charlie" "Delta" "Echo" "Foxtrot", a set of red rectangles appeared also, 7 squads, "Delta and Echo go for a frontal attack and fall back to a safe point," the animation followed, " while Charlie on the right flank and Foxtrot on the left flank advance to the sides and cross fire, being careful not to kill each other in the process" Tia's hair was so bright it was almost as if the room had had the lights turned on.

"Why is there no Alpha or Bravo?" Leticia was confused

"This is a British sort of tradition, it dates back to when orders had to be shouted across the battle field, and later on radio coms that were likely to be hacked by the enemy. Obviously Charlie and Delta would be receiving orders as usual, but Alpha and Charlie would never be mentioned. Because of this the enemy would be confused, like you are now. They'd be looking and searching for Alpha and Bravo who didn't exist, but the enemy didn't know that. With this confusion the British have become famed with attacking and succeeding in taking targets with much more man power than themselves. There are various stories of this happening, including one where two British squads sieged an enemy force three times as large as them. The enemy surrendered and the British entered the building and called in for an evac plus prisoners of war transport."

"Wow" Max gasped imagining the scale of an operation.

"Class dismissed" Tia flickered off and the room automatically lit up, Arawn flickered on and addressed the children

"Lunch in the mess hall in 10 minutes"

"Thanks Arawn" Jordan said. The children were led out of the room by their supervisors.

. "I'm gunna use a flank on you on our next game of chess, kyle" Max called out down the corridor to Kyle who was walking next to Jordan.

"Yeah you try that" Kyle called back in a cocky voice.

"Now now boys" Tia said over the intercom.

After lunch training continued: basic psychology.

"What is fear?" Tia looked for an answer in the children

"Fear is….. When something is scary" Max was quite proud of his answer, he even did a little head nod after saying it as if to say 'yes, that's it'

"Well… You're not wrong. Fear is when an object is not what you would expect in that environment. For example, humans fear spiders because they have 8 legs, you are used to seeing things with two, maybe 4 legs, but 8 legs, the way they move, scares you. Snakes scare you because we don't understand (from looking at it under direct observation) how it moves, it has slimy looking skin and scales. Humans are used to smooth skin that is relatively dull." A life-size hologram of an Elite showed up the middle of the room "A Sanghelli, or Elite, scares humans because they are much bigger than you, 7 or 8 foot tall, bigger than the average human by 2 feet, and half a man heavier. They have quadruple mandibles and are reptilian in appearance, yet walk like a man with 2 legs."

"He is huge" noted Jordan "is he a bad guy?"

"They used to be, back over 70 years ago, back in the days of Master Chief" Another hologram appeared, Master Chief in all his armour, 7 foot tall, and still the Sanghelli was almost a foot taller than him. "Now they are friendly to an extent. There are still a few Sanghelli/Human Extremist groups out there."

"Oh right."

"Back to the lesson, a quote from a famous weapons designer from the 21st century states 'If you scare the enemy, the battle is already half won'. Well, how do we scare the enemy? The weapon designer in question, Mr. Jones, founder of Venator Weapons systems, was an expert in this. He designed weapon systems completely new to the time. Some vehicles we use at the moment, such as the Elephant, are based on some of his original vehicles and concepts.

"The vehicles were good in concept, but technology of the time lacked what was needed to fully execute the idea. For example, Jones' original concept of the elephant was too heavy for engines of the time to move, even slowly. And even if they had a bigger more powerful engine, the materials of the time would have been too heavy to achieve any real speed, maybe 1 or 2 miles per hour tops.

"Jones did make various vehicles however including one that was used extensively throughout the later part of the 21st century and through to the mid-22nd century. It was named after the company, the XX-52-43 "Venatrix" Heavy Tank. Some of the design for the Venatrix can be seen in our modern Scorpion, the quadruple tracks for example. The Venatrix would be used in pairs, one would fire as the other reloaded, with the coupling of the beginnings of the dual-barrel technology used in the upgraded Grizzly tanks, led to an almost constant stream of shells down range.

"It is said the sight of the sheer size of a single one of these things would neutralise the enemy on sight, the second was just to drill the severity of the situation into the enemy a little more and the twin barrels was to show the enemy that they were not kidding. If the enemy proceeded to be hostile, the rate of fire of the single tank was double that of the average tank at the time, 20 RPM, coupled with the dual firing drills, up to 40 RPM could be achieved between the two tanks.

"This was only the main weapons, each tank had a trio of Mini-guns mounted to the turret, one was co-axial, meaning it fired in the same place as the main gun with a few degrees of movement, the other two were dual turret mounted on the top of the tank fired by radio control using a video camera with various sight modes. Although it moved slower than the average battle tank of the time, had thinner armour to try and get it moving a little faster, and was very expensive to make. They were also cumbersome, and too big to move by air, so had to travel by their own power on land, or by heavy landing craft via sea one at a time.

"The Venatrix was as scary as tanks came until the introduction of bigger engines, it stopped conflicts before they started at the mere mention of the name, and if it didn't, it would make hostiles fun for the hills on appearance."

The hologram of Master Chief disappeared and was replaced by an image of a Venatrix tank. As Tia had described, it had dual barrels, but they were spaced 2 meters apart to accommodate for the reloading mechanisms (compared to the small gap of just under a meter for the modern Grizzly) there was a small hologram of a 6 foot tall man for scale, he barely reached the height of the track, and would easily have fitted underneath it widthways. Each track was over 5 meters long, in total the tank was over 14 meters long, 10 meters wide and 10 meters tall. The armour was made to be angular to make the most out of the relatively thin plates. The turret was centralised and it's armour folded seamlessly into the main body of the tank, at first glance there was no obvious weak spots and an enemy RPG soldier would have a tough time deciding where to fire, by which time he would be shredded by the mini-gun turret which resided of to the rear of the main turret, the mini-guns mounted side by side.

"I'd run for my life if I saw that too…" muttered Leticia

"Nah it's easy, get behind it and shot it in the back" Jordan replied

"What will that do?" Max asked

"Tia can you spin the hologram 180 degrees please?" Jordan asked and the hologram spun. Jordan got up and pointed to the rear of the tank "See here the armour is at a steeper incline than at the front, in a cross-section it is thinner than at the front. Also usually the engine block of a tank is located at the rear in order to get easy access to a panel for ventilation and so it is less-likely to be knocked out from a frontal attack, one, maybe two RPGs to the rear would take it out. Although getting around the top mini-gun turret would be difficult, you'd have to use its slow speed and lack of agility to get around it using building and flanking techniques…. Although you said these things travel in pairs? How would they be in formation?"

"Usually side by side on open ground to prove a larger frontal opposing force, which led to much of the fear caused. Although down roads, one behind the other due to the size, the typical road is only about 7meters wide, not including the path, 3 meters less than the width of the tank." Tia replied, hair glowing.

"Right, so first you knock out the rear tank by leading it up a road it can only just fit in, then you flank around the sides using buildings and thick cover, trying not to expose yourself through windows or doors. Then you get a squad to draw attention to the front, flash bangs that sort of thing. The squads who flanked around prepare their RPGs and fire into the back of the tank. Rinse and repeat."

"Very good, but this is a lesson on Phycology of war, not Strategy in combat" Despite this remark, she had already alerted Commander Davies of this event and recorded it for him to analyse later.

"Back to the lesson, in modern times, fear is still employed by the location of our ships in orbit, more recently ships have also had decals and logos painted onto them in order to show dominance and ownership of the battle field. For example, on the bottom of this ship, as you all saw before you boarded, is the logo for the Omega-1 Squad that used to be based on this ship before it was re-fitted for luxury purposes, now it is being further re-fitted for combat again and the Omega-1 logo will be replaced with the logo of your own, the White Hoods emblem."

"is that the emblem that is engraved onto our knives we were given back on earth?" Max asked

"Yes, it will be painted in white and at night will be lit up by blue lights. Upon completion you will see it"

An hour went by and the lesson finished. There was an hour until dinner, Jordan went back to his room, Leticia decided to go to the observation deck and Kyle and Max went to the cinema to watch an old 21st century film, "Elysium".

Commander Davies was waiting outside Jordan's room for him and had already listen to the transcript of the strategy thought up by Jordan to destroy a Venatrix.

"Jordan!" Davies called down to corridor like a father seeing his son after a long day at school "Tia showed me the strategy you thought of to kill a pair of Venatrix tanks. Very good, I was very impressed. How would you like to design your armour that you will wear in future in operations and ceremonial dress?"

"Sir, I would love to, what's the catch?"

"There isn't one, just use what you have been taught about fear, the design you come up with today won't be final, you can change it any time you want. But it will be good to get a starting point"

"Sure thing, Is it alright if I browse the current and past Spartan armour systems and Assassin robes for inspiration?"

"Yeah, let's just get inside first."


	8. Cutomisation

VIII

Customisation

Jordan unlocked his cabin door and offered Davies the first step inside.

"May I ask, Jordan, how did you know how to destroy a tank?" Davies was confused about this ever since Jordan said it. It took marines at least one tour to work this out.

"I found a game on the internet called 'World of Tanks'. I realised that if I turn the back of my tank the enemy I received more damage than from the front. I tried applying this in my favour, by sneaking behind enemy tanks, and I realised that the back of a tank is a weak spot." Jordan replied

"I should have to show this game to recruits…."

Once in, Tia flicked on the holo-projector in the middle of the room and gave a motion as if a pulling a door open. The room filled with full sets of holograms of Spartan amour from all different models, including the Spartan VII and even original concepts that were later dropped, and not limited to the MJOLNIR models either, HAYABUSA and SPI Armour was included (along with their later dropped models such as the HAYABUSA MK II that was going to be used on the Spartan IIIs but never made final production due to cost)

"There's so many, I like this one though" Jordan walked over to the HAYABUSA MK II. It was generally the same as the MK I. The helmet's upper section was longer and pulled over the rear a bit further, more spikes were also added. The shoulders include a few more plates for added protection and the chest piece was raised up on the left side, similar to the MJOLNIR Grenadier (C) but with a sharper angles and a dual katana sheath on the back. The armour was lit up by an array of blue and white LEDs around the trimmings and plate overlaps. The legs were constant with the rest of the armour, sharp angles and overlaps, LEDs on the joints and overlaps and mechanical looking feet.

"What's up with this one's feet, Tia?" Davies asked kneeling down by a holograms feet

"That is the MJOLNIR CurbStomper MK I. It was designed back in the days before full artificial gravity on board UNSC Ships to allow the user to stick to the floor without magnets or anything that could be a hindrance, it was later dropped because the feet were a hindrance, ironically enough. The feet had sensors that when the boot was placed onto the floor two clamps would deploy and anchor the soldier to the floor, they would unclamp, supposedly, when the soldier pulled his foot up, but they had problems with the release mechanism and on occasion, the boot would rip up part of the floor with it."

"Wait that sounds familiar, where is the MJOLNIR Mobile Artillery Exoskeleton? Didn't that have a lock down mode than allowed it to become anchored into position to absorb re-coil of the heavy guns?"

"You are right, here it is" A suit lit up. It was bigger than the rest by a foot, it had external hydraulic rams on the arms and legs and had two very large barrelled weapons, one on each arm.

"Wow, talk about scaring the enemy" Jordan said. "How about attaching a pair of mini-guns to it and have it walk towards the enemy?"

"There was actually field-modified models that donned dual machine gun turrets for anti-infantry purposes. They turned out to be effective, but were never adopted. Although the idea of wielding a broken machine gun turret was never dropped, Jorge-052 of Noble Team is a perfect example of this." Tia responded.

"How about these Assassins? This one has two swords, why?" Jordan passed around the hologram figure of Edward.

"He was a pirate before he became an Assassin. He was one of the most feared Pirates of the time, he knew Blackbeard and James Kidd personally. He was a loose cannon." Tia kept the information brief, Jordan probably wouldn't have been interested.

A few hours past. The amour Jordan had made had taken influences from each of the different armours on display.

The angular plates from the HAYABUSA MK II, the lockable feet from the CurbStomper MK I were implemented and made sleeker and more powerful. The neck guard from the Grenadier (C) and HAYABUSA MK II were edited and built into the hood, which in turn was taken from the design Ezio wore with the integration of a thin (but strong) screen to display a HUD. The hood itself was made entirely of armour plating that was overlapped, looking almost reptilian. The peak was present and on it was the White Hoods emblem which would light up when activated.

The armour was notably thinner and lighter, but did not compromise protection, the additional armour plates were purely cosmetic and at the touch of a button would drop off to allow a smaller profile. A cloak was implemented into the back which was made of a nano weave and could conduct a shield. It was smaller than that worn by the Master Chief/ Assassin simulation but would still be used in the same way. Multiple hidden weapons were concealed into the vambraces and the armour plating on the knuckles had added blades.

The right shoulder was taken from the Security variant of the MJOLNIR worn by Spartan IIIs, although made slightly smaller. The large curved blade was still present, known as a kukri, the left should took inspiration from the HAYABUSA MK II with the top place slightly extended and thicker, concealed inside was a small bank of missiles, only enough to kill a single man each, but when combined with an AI it could lock onto a target and eliminate them from 500 meters away silently and accurately (It is said it could be made to pass through the small suite symbol on a playing card from nearly 750 meters away with an accuracy of 0.5 millimetres.)

The chest plate was covered mainly by a main harness to which was attached various sheaths for throwing knifes. There were also a few side-arm holsters, two on the chest and two on the centre lower back and also two in the centre upper back and one on either leg. The leg holsters could hold SMGs also.

Melee weapons on the amour of course included the hidden blades (which were made of hard light instead of metal), a short hidden rope which could be used to strangle enemies or counter their attacks, and a longer version of the hidden blade, almost half an arm long, also made of hard light. The dual Katanas were replaces with dual hard light Katanas and were equipped in an upside down cross, so the assassin did not have to raise his arms to wield them, potentially revealing the thinner armour in his arm pit or side. The only melee weapon actually made of metal was the Kukri on the right shoulder. The elbows and knees also had deployable spikes in order to assist in un-armed combat.

The hood was white with black trims on the plate edges. The right shoulder was also white, the kukri had a grey scale digital camouflaged blade with a black grip. The White Hoods logo was also present in black on the side of this piece. The left shoulder was white with black trims and had a white strip down the middle of the plates going from top to bottom. The plates on the body and arms were mostly black digital with white trims. The face plate (the screen which displayed the HUD) was made of a very dark ballistic glass, but could be retracted to reveal the face of the wearer. The hood also had hidden lights to light up dark spaces, although a variety of sensors (including thermal and infrared could be displayed to allow night vision). Unlike an actual hood, it could not be simply place down, but instead at the touch of a button on the right arm Tac-Pad, the HUD would retract and the hood plates slide over one another to fold away into a collar, although a light energy shield would remain around the head even when the armour was detracted, the shield was invisible to the naked eye and was dynamic. Tia would constantly monitor the surroundings while the armour plating was down and if a projectile or blade was going to hit the shield, the shield would 'move' to concentrate in the contact area, this was the same across the body to make use of what little shielding there was (about half that of a proper Spartan suit). Obviously Tia was an advanced AI and would be able to prioritise hostile projective and could divert the shielding to separate parts of the body in differing concentrations in order to deal with smaller/larger projectiles. Although if Tia did detect an incoming projectile, the chances are the armoured hood would be put back up automatically before contact, but with all mechanical systems there is a delay, and the delay of the hood was close to 5 seconds, the flight time of a bullet is usually less than this (depending on range obviously)

"I like it." Tia said "it's menacing and scary, but not massively huge and cumbersome"

All the amour plates were equipped with a small thruster and magnets to be assembled without the need to actually be stationary for too long (for example if the user is planet side without his armour and he runs into trouble, the armour would be deployed into space by the Fear Naught and it would make its way to the user piece by piece and assemble around the user, even while they were running or fighting. There was also a small capability for EVA with these thrusters, although long distance would be difficult, it would more likely be useful for adjusting course instead of full on propulsion. Tia could also take full control of the suit, say if the occupant was seriously injured or unconscious for whatever reason. Obviously all this would have to be tested… in time. They could well be completely changed from this by the time the testing came. And of course this was just the prepare for anything set, the armour could always be changed prior to a high Intel mission to suit the requires, for example with stealth, a more effective cloak would be equipped, the armour made thinner and lighter, the shield capacitor made smaller to reduce weight. Less weapons and an active camouflage device could be installed also. Of course many improvements have been made to the active camo modules, mainly the fact that the light disruption had been decrease (among other things).

For now the children would have to train and learn. The other three children would also specialise their amours, although many features would be shared like the hood and the CurbStomper feet, as well as the AI control and the mini-thrusters.

Tia was thinking, her hair was flowing although she wasn't saying anything. Neither Jordan nor Davies noticed.

'I should take this thing for a test run…. Make it run through the corridors or sit on the railing in the mess hall…. That would be funny, and also a good test of its fear-factor…. Yes. Maybe a hologram version though, not he actual suit. I wonder what Arawn would think. Davies might find it humorous also.' She thought in a sequence of 1s and 0s.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hey guys, if you don't like the sound of the amour I have described then post a review with what you think is should look like. If you like what it looks like and you are a really good drawer, feel free to try and draw it, I'd love to see it drawn tbh… And if you are confused about anything then feel free to PM me or leave a review :)

'Till next chapter

~ FAILbro777


	9. Learning to Walk

IX

Learning to walk

Like all AIs, Tia was not a physical object, although she came closer to it than any previous AI. She had the ability to control objects she had no wires or connections to. She could basically use radio waves to communicate to other electrical devises, even power them if needs be. This can be very handy on and off the battle field. Tia had used this ability once before when the amidships of a cruiser had be complete destroyed, the bow and stern of the ship were only held together by 3 decks worth of hull, all electrical connections from the bridge to the engines were severed and the ship was dead in space .

Tia was on board another ship. The dead ship was known as "UNSC National Pride", the AI on board was destroyed, power cut from his computer. Atmosphere was leaking from the ship where the power was knocked out completely and the air tight doors ship wide had not closed in time. Everything was being sucked into the void of space. The ship was down and out, falling into the orbit of the nearby planet and about to implode due to pressure drop inside.

Tia powered up the ship, closing air tight doors across the ship. Every single one with no prejudice for anyone stuck in-between frames, the odd singular engineer or the rest of the ships population including marines and UNSC officials. After all air locks were closed, she re-established even air pressure throughout the ship then fired up the engines, turned the ship towards her own and ordered recovery crews to board and recover survivors. The carcass was then simply dumped into an orbit which would take it into the solar system's star and abandoned.

Tia is what is known as a "free" AI. Most other AIs have to be given commands to do a certain task. Auto pilot is based off of pre-determined actions and calculations, for example: if the ship is on a collision course, turn out of the way for the object that you will collide with or slow down or speed up. If the ship comes under fire, up shields and inform the captain. No weapons should be fired without further orders unless damage is significant. Hull breach, close surrounding air locks and equalise pressure. These AIs are known as "slave" AIs. They had free thinking and a vast knowledge but are limited to protocols and limitations and of course commands.

Free AIs are infinite. More expensive to produce too, one of the first was Cortana, but even she was still limited to a few protocols. Tia was truly free. She was also the most powerful AI created up to about half a year after her own release. Free AIs can access any amount of information they like, calculate the probability of anything, take command of any system they are placed into (whether another AI is already present or not), override security protocols, re-write security protocols among many other things.

Tia was idle at the moment in time. It was April first of the third year of the children's training. The Fear Naught had been re-fitted for the White Hoods project, Leticia, Kyle and Jordan had designed their armours and even designed a few spare sets for specialized missions. Martial arts training had commenced, although only with holograms. Training for today was cancelled however.

In the spirit of April Fools, the ships mess hall had been rigged so that every time a person sat down the chair would emit an crude sound of passing gas. The doors around the ship would randomly not open fully so people would have to crawl underneath or squeeze between doors. The occasional hologram would sprint up a corridor towards a person walking and run "through" them.

Tia was about to step this up a level. The suit Jordan had designed was imposing, and better yet had all the equipment it needed to be controlled directly by Tia. The suit was in Jordan's room, in the display cabinet/ equipping chamber (Jordon would step inside and robotic arms would equip the armour onto his body. The armour was already fully made up though, after all it was a display cabinet, however had no reactor installed.

No issue for Tia, she sent a burst of radio waves to the suit, the suit lit up and Tia observed through the helmet cam. The HUD lit up, systems normal. No shields however due to lack of a shield generator. The doors opened in front of the suit and Tia commanded it forwards, the hollow armour lightly treading on the ground due to the lightweight, yet protective, nano-composite plates. Tia did a mobility check. The amour flexed its arms and legs in any and all directions possible by the normal human joints. The helmet visor opened and closed, the hood came down and up again, shoulder plates folded open and missile launcher (minus missiles) extended and retracted. All hidden weapons extended, the blades, the extended blades and the short chain flipped out one by one and retracted.

After the motion checks were completed the armour walked towards the main room door.

'Great it's stuck' Tia thought. Of course it wasn't stuck it was just the programing that Tia had not been aware of. 'Oh well a great opportunity to test if this thing can get down low'

The suit crouched as low as it could, slowly made its way underneath and stood up on the other side. No one was in the corridor. The suit turned to the right and walked down towards the elevator. The suit pressed the call button on the elevator and the doors opened letting it in. 'so good so far'

The elevator took the suit to the armour when Tia equipped it with an active camouflage unit and a blank firing DMR. The suit exited the armoury and took the elevator to the deck with Davies' room on, P deck. Davies had retired here for the day to prevent risk of pranks played by the children.

"Commander Davies, I have sent your lunch from the mess hall" Tia told Davies

"Thank you Tia, the door is unlocked"

'He'll never see It coming' the suit walked to the door and the door slid open.

"Lunch is served"

"Thanks Tia… Whoa!" Davies fell backwards off of his chair and nearly hit his head on the desk where he was working. "Jesus Christ Tia, what the hell Tia?" The suit stood a whole head above Davies.

"Just taking the armour for a spin on April fools sir" the amour threw up a sharp salute, the hood and visor folding away to reveal the nothingness underneath and the hand hovering roughly where the head would be.

"Yeah I can see that" said Davies saluting back to the suit "scared the crap out of me."

"What do you think? It performs well, everything works that I've tested. And I'm currently running diagnostic on it. It doesn't have shields installed yet but that technology is tested and we know it works."

"Yeah looks good, very scary too, imposing. Silent as a mouse, I couldn't hear it at all. What are you going to do with it now?"

"I'll take it to the mess hall and sit on a balcony. Maybe jump up on people using this" the suit went invisible from head to toe "this is the Stalker variant too, recharges so long as you stay still"

"Nice pick, sounds handy for sniping missions"

"That is exactly why it was developed"

"It's kinda weird talking to a suit with no head… can you either put that hood back on or put a hologram there?"

"How's this?" Tia's head flickered on where the head should be, hair flowing over the shoulders of the amour and down to the floor. Wisps lifted lightly as if a wind was blowing from the front and a few streaks glowed slightly brighter.

"Uh huh… better… anyway I have things to do, dismissed"

"Yes sir." The suit saluted again and turned around to leave

"On last thing Tia"

"Sir?"

"Look less… attractive next time you do that"

Tia's hair flared up into a large halo "Of course sir, as you wish"

The suit left the room, Tia's head disappeared and the hood and visor went back on. The door slid shut behind it and Davies set back to work. The suit went to the elevator and Tia sent it to the mess hall.

After a few minutes of descending through deck the doors pinged open. At first no-on noticed, doors pinging open were nothing unusual in the mess hall. And even if they had looked, nothing would be seen. Tia had of course activated the stalker active camouflage. The suit slowly walked out of the elevator and walked towards the nearest table. 8 men were sat at the table, the standard marines by the looks of it, the elder of the 4 was only in his mid-30s, the youngest in his late-20s.

Tia walked the suit over to the younger member of the squad and noticed an emblem on his shoulder, a simple crossed rifles and skull with the numbers 304 stamped on its forehead. 304 Rifles Regiment, snipers. These guys could hit a soft drinks can dead centre from over a kilometre away.

"Excuse me" Tia said through the suit but not in her usual voice, in the voice of Commander Davies who had had many dealings with the 304 regiment previously.

"Officer on deck!" shouted the eldest on the table. He looked around confused as to where the voice had come from. The youngest sniper turned towards where Davie's voice seemed to come from.

"What the….where is he?" The youngest looked panicked, the look on his face was a mix of terror and laughter. "Oh that's funny, Arawn playing a prank on us… haha very funny Arawn"

"Quite the contrary boys" Tia said again, her own voice this time. The suit de-cloaked and tapped the soldier on his shoulder

"Ffffff…" the normally rock solid man, the man who could fire shots on target from a kilometre away and still hit them even while taking return fire, jumped backwards and into the man behind him, "What the hell is that?"

"This is the whole reason you marines are on board this ship" Tia replied

"Oh so this is a White Hood super soldier?"

"No, this is the suit. The soldiers, the men, and woman, who wear these suits are aboard, however their names and classified…for now"

"Looks very similar to MJOLNIR armour" shouted a voice a few tables over. The voice belonged to Lieutenant Andrew Dean. The suit turned to face the LT.

"Very correct Lieutenant," Tia confirmed as the suit walked across the room "the suit draws influences from MJOLNIR of all variants as well as HAYABUSA and various other powered armour suits."

"Nice, I ran with the MJOLNIR MK V Hunter armour 2 tours ago." Dean is part of the Spartan compliment aboard the Fear Naught, one of 50 highly trained soldiers all with at least 10 years' experience as a specialised marine or ODST. They wore various different armours, all MK IV or newer. Dean was the highest ranking Spartan on the team, 6 foot 1 inch tall, blond hair, faux hawk in style in free time. Emerald coloured eyes, thick cheeks and defined jaw. He was well built and was originally an engineer and qualified tank driver.

Rumour had is that Dean manually loaded a tank 10 times in a row when the mechanical loader was jammed waiting for back up as an enemy scout party came down the valley his tank was immobilised in while trying to transfer between bases. Bearing in mind each high explosive round for a scorpion tank weighs about 50 kilograms each.

"Yes you did, these greaves are taken from that set" the suit lifted its leg and looked down and placed the leg back down, inspecting the leg piece. "With a few edits of course"

The LT was standing now. Walking towards the suit. He wore red and grey cargos, typical of the Spartans aboard the Fear Naught, as well as a green t-shirt tucked into his trousers. His beret was stuffed into his rear belt loops, the same shade of red as used on his cargos. "Yeah, it's thinner, the joints are wider and it looks like it has a pyramidal texture." He observed. "That's not the normal armour plates we use"

"Correct again Lieutenant; that is quite enough however. You shall see more of this suit on training simulations in the coming years" The suit turned around and walked towards the still open doors of the elevator.

The elevator took the suit to the deck Jordan was on, the leisure deck. Jordan was in the middle of a spacewalk on the outside hull of the ship overlooking the nearby planet, Reach, the outermost Inner colony. Reach was glassed by the Covenant at the beginning of the Human-Covenant war. Reach is in was re-colonised soon after the end of the war, the UNSC keen to get their main defensive fortress planet back up and running, however it took over 30 years of terraforming to get the surface back to its original state before the glassing. A small civilian population had returned (approximately 1 billion people) and the first orbital Mac guns were under construction, small flickers of lights could be seen at the locations of the old orbital platforms as they were refurbished and made bigger and stronger.

If there were particles in space, Jordan would have heard a light thudding as his suit walked along the hull. Clamping its feet into the 5 meter think titanium armour plating using magnets and teeth. But there are no particles in space, so Jordan didn't hear it.

"Jordan, I have something I'd like you to meet on your eight O'clock." Tia transmitted to Jordan.

Jordan looked around and staggered down the hull, not expecting to see his suit of armour out of its case so soon. He slipped and started drifting away from the hull, the safety line pulled taunt and Jordan safely returned to the hull, if a bit shock up. "Damn Tia, don't do that again"

"Of course not" Tia replied almost laughing. "It's time to come back in now Jordan, you've been out here for over an hour."

"All right, I need to write home to Mum and Dad anyway" Jordan said standing up and using the tether line to pull himself along the hull.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey guys, sorry for not posting in a while, I'm right in the middle of exam season, as usual I will post when I can, come summer holidays (6 weeks away from school, woop) I hope to write at least 3 chapters in the main sequence but I'll see how far I get with this lot first. Next chapter is going to be another letter (as Jordan just said above). If you want t have some input as to what it says, send me a PM. Don't forget to favourite an review, show me some support! :D

Also for you artsy types, I'd love a few sketches of Jordan's armour, and if you want to draw/design the other 3 sets that would be awesome too, I'll pick my favourites and describe them in the story at some point. I will also publish them to my Facebook page I made for this, add the following onto the end of the usual facebook address and it'll take you straight there: /halowhitehoods

Thanks for reading, I hope you are enjoying the story so far, I will soon get into the main sequence I promise, but there are a few things I need to build on first (IE the relationship between Leticia and her Mother)

Until next time

~ FAIL


	10. Dear Mum

X

Dear Mum...

Mr and Mrs Crux

12 Fifth Overwatch

Enfield

London

SP17 7TN

Earth

Sol System

Dear Mum and Dad,

It has been 2 years since I left home. I hope you are both well, I am fine. My training is becoming harder by the day, although I still cope. Today we had a day off for April Fools, I went on a space walk and looked down upon the planet REDACTED and saw some of the REDACTED being re-built. It's quite the sight, seeing sparks and lights of metal welding from over 200 miles away in space.

In the next year I will be taking training to improve my strength and agility. Only enough to keep me fit and healthy, not to the extent of the Spartan IIs. I will be learning martial arts like Krav Maga and Tae Kwan Do. I am especially looking forward to Krav Maga, it originated in Israel and is basically the ultimate martial are, combining a handful of moves to adapt to any situation.

Kyle and Max are coming on well also, I assume you talk to their parents? Leticia is also doing well. She drags behind on some of the physical training, but she I brilliant with other things like First Aid and Phycology.

My suit is awesome too, it is made of a new material, REDACED weave, which is basically tiny strands of ceramics and carbon nano tubes to take advantage of all properties of all the materials. For example this one material can stop a 50 cal. AP round from a sniper and not be scratched while, without having any additional materials, conducting a shield. Its thinner and lighter too, so the whole suit only weighs 520 kilos, compared to the 1000 kilos of previous suits. It also means more protection can be implemented into smaller suits, however, some of the electronics make it essential to be large and somewhat bulky (still less so that the original suits)

We will next be in the Sol system in 6 months' time. We will stay in Geostationary Orbit above London for a week, move to Washington DC for another week then to REDACTED for the start of suit training. For our 2 weeks in Earth's orbit, we have been told our families can come aboard and stay, they will be taken by pelican from Washington back to London via Pelican.

Tia played a prank on the whole ship for April fools, she took control of the display version of my suit and used it to scare various officers and even myself. I nearly floated off into space if it wasn't for they safety line.

Anyway, I hope you are both well, I will see you in a few months and we can catch up properly.

Your loving son,

Jordan

AUTHORS NOTE

I apologise for this chapter being significantly shorter than previous ones, but I hope it gives you a bit more of an insight into Jordan and also the suits. Thank you to HolyFuryFish for commenting on my suit design and constructive criticism. I will take note of your comments and improve my descriptions.

I am aware I am yet to mention the "enemy", although I am throwing around ideas in my head. However as stated in my previous authors note, I think I need to develop Leticia and her mother a little more before starting on the main body of the story.

For now though, I hope you are enjoying the read, and again I apologise for the briefness of this chapter. Remember there is a Facebook page to like and follow, I do update it saying when I am writing and when I am about to publish a chapter. I'd also love some fan art to post on there too. Just type /halowhitehoods after the main facebook address and it'll take you straight there

Until next chapter

~FAILbro


	11. Like Father Like Daughter

XI

Like Father, Like Daughter

3 years have passed on the Fear Naught, in which time the children had completed to a high standard almost every task laid in front of them, save one, Philosophy. Max once quoted "As Technology advances, reliance on religion decreases". This had become particularly true in Britain and the British founded colonies on varies planets across the universe. Jordan and Leticia are 14 years old now, Max and Kyle, 12. The children were inseparable. Even when training was finished, they'd often continue talking about various topics, occasionally Tia would even join them in a discussion, helping to visualise descriptions using interactive holograms and researching the validity of one of their claims, often times the children would be accurate in what they said so the research was hardly necessary.

"Leticia, your day's training is going to start in two hours' time"

Leticia blinked her eyes open, blinded by the bright blue hologram of Tia at the foot of the bed in the otherwise black room.

"Huh? What? Oh…" She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and swivelled around to the side of the bed, hanging her feet off of the edge.

"What's happening today Tia?" Leticia asked while still adjusting to the light.

"Today the training schedule, including breaks and meals is as follows: 1 hour breakfast, 1 hour first aid theory, 1 hour first aid simulation, half an hour break, 1 and a half hour Tai Kwando lesson, 1 hour martial art simulation, 2 hours lunch and free time, half hour combat simulation brief, one and a half hour combat simulation with secondary objectives. Total day time 9 hours. "

"That's not too bad then. The first aid sim sounds fun… Can you turn the lights on please, Tia?" Leticia stood up and walked towards the bathroom door. The lights flicked on, just dimly to start, then slowly brighter to allow Leticia's eyes to adjust. She opened the door of the bathroom and the lights in there flicked on also, the same gradual brightness effect of the bedroom lights. She walked in, undressed and showered, washing the sleep away, preparing for the day ahead.

Leticia called out to Tia, "What time is…"

"Lights out?" Tia knew what Leticia was going to ask, she has done every day for the four years aboard the Fear Naught, without fail. It's at 2300 ship time, it is currently 0605."

"Plenty of free time later then." Leticia turned off the shower and stepped out, wrapping a towel around her body and another around her hair, tying it into a head wrap.

Half an hour of hair drying, light make up applying, and dressing later, Leticia was ready. Her mother was also awake by this time.

Ms Young, Sophia Young, had a relatively relaxing time aboard the Fear Naught, most of her time simply spent conversing with Tia, Arawn (when he was available), Commander Davies (again when he was available) and the other parents back on Earth giving near-live updates of evens on board using messaging services and letters.

"Hey darling, what's happening today then?" Sophia asked her daughter.

"Only 9 hours of training today, 2 hours of lunch too, doing some first aid, a first aid simulation and some Tai Kwando" Leticia deliberately avoided the mention of the combat sim, her mum always gets worries, despite it not being real.

"Pretty easy then yeah? I'll be writing a letter home to all the other parents later, anything the boys want to say?"

"I'll let you know through Tia later, probably around lunch time. Can we have a cinema night tonight? There's really cool film out about the Chief"

"About who? Master Chief? Wont that be all violent though, you know I don't like watching those types of films."

"No, no, it's more of a documentary on his life, bit published as a film so people can keep it I suppose…"

"Maybe, I'll have a talk with Tia. Will the boys be coming?"

"I'm not sure, they suggested it a while ago but never really did it, I'll ask Jordan but He'll probably be playing on his computer. He plays games from the 21st century, it's quite cool to watch actually."

"I'll see if I can get you a computer then" Sophia said smiling.

"Ordered, one 21st century PC" Tia said over the intercom "any particular specification?"

"Just make it good enough to run a decent game" Leticia responded.

"So will that be Dual or Quad SLI Titans?"

"SLI what? Actually don't worry about the what. Quad please."

"Is that all?" Tia asked, already knowing the answer

"Yes, thank you Tia."

Leticia's hair had dried on the short walk to the mess hall, falling into a straight flow over her shoulders down to her chest. She had a slender figure from physical training and the nutritionally specific foods from the mess hall (typically high protein and carbohydrate) and a soft, yet defined face. She favoured a full fringe and kept it straightened in free times, despite the natural straightness. She sat on a table along with the 3 other children, opposite Jordan, next to max. Kyle sat next to Jordan. Tia accompanied the children on a small holo-pad near the middle of the table.

The four kids wore the same uniform. Black cargo trousers with grey urban digital camo trims and white straps and quick-release buckles around the thighs and calves. A small rubber insignia was stuck on a Velcro pad on the left side cargo pocket, the White Hoods insignia. The knees were padded. They all wore black t-shirts and fitted white and grey digital camo hooded jumpers. The shirts were plain black with the insignia on the left breast and each child's surname on their back along with a larger insignia and room enough for a nickname to be printed later.

The hoodies could be described as segmented, each panel of fabric in a differing colour. The torso part was plain white with straps and a few "male" quick release buckles on the back of the shoulders and lower back. The sides of the torso were grey and black digi-camo. The upper sections of the sleeves were a light grey with wrap around straps and buckles to allow adjustment for ops or comfort (also usable as a tourniquet if needed). The grey section tapered to a tip near the elbow and the lower section was white and cut short, giving a three-quarter sleeve. The lower section was digi-camo, again, with an adjustable strap and buckle. The elbows where padded like the knees.

The hood of the hoody was complex. A 6-segment hood with wire re-enforcement to give a nice heptagonal shape. A couple of male quick release buckles attached to the sides facing horizontally when the hood was up, these could be used for the attachment of coms equipment. Another adjusting strap was present across the rear of the head, with two buckles to allow symmetry (the designer was very OCD about symmetry, plus it didn't look to bad either). Instead of a straight edged hood, the hood had a shape resembling of an eagle's head as if screeching, coming out to a point mid was down the panels. The peak was very pronounced, when worn it would almost completely block the wearers face, save the lips, however the wearer could see out, a small holographic display housed in the hood and a camera mounted on the peak allowed a live stream and target acquisition data to be seen instantly. A similar display will be installed onto the battle suits.

"Have you guys eaten?" Leticia said as she sat.

"Yeah but I'm still hungry. The portions are tiny." replied Jordan rubbing his belly

"Yeah, want to come up again? I need some food, training starts in half an hour"

The boys nodded. Tia sent a warning to the canteen to serve the kids again, with a slightly larger portion this time. Growing kids are known to need more nutrition than adults, especially when the kids are doing two different sims today. The kids returned to the table, plates full of a full English breakfast, adult sized. 2 bacon, 2 egg (fried for the boys, poached for Leticia), 1 sausage, 2 peeled and fried tomatoes, 1 hash brown and a puddle of beans, a handful of condiments including salt and HP brown sauce.

"That's a lot of food, Jordan" Tia pointed out to the boy who had somehow managed to get an extra bacon and egg.

"What can I say? I'm a growing lad" Jordan struck a pose, 'The beach is that way', tensing his biceps although the hoody covered them over.

"Ha-ha very funny Jordan" Leticia said in a subtlety sarcastic voice, cutting open the first of the poached eggs and dipping the hash brown into the golden yoke.

One and a half hours later, the short brief for the first aid sim was being disused, the previous lesson had covered laceration wounds, dismemberment and gunshots.

"You will be placed into a simulated combat scenario, instead of fighting you are the casevac team. Does everybody remember what a casevac is?" Tia testing their knowledge while briefing them, she found it was a better indication of their knowledge than formal tests.

The boys were clueless, uming and erring and repeating the two syllable word, hoping that the answer would suddenly spring on them "Cas…Evac…Cas…Evac… Casevac"

"Doesn't it mean Casualty Evacuation?" Leticia answered

"Correct, I'm surprised you boys didn't get that, it is fairly obvious. Anyway, as I was saying, there will be an unknown number of casualties, some may be dead, but you won't know who, so you will have to check all signs of life. You will be witnessing some gruesome and hyper-realistic looking injuries, however remember at all times that it is a simulation, if it gets too much to hand shout 'stop' three times and the sim will instantly stop you will be debriefed and checked out"

Max spoke up "Well that's re-assuring. Kyle don't go crying at some holo-blood now will you?"

"Hey, if anyone is gunna cry it'll be you" retaliated Kyle

"Stop it you two, we're a team now remember?" Leticia didn't want the team to break down before the sim even started, no-doubt that would carry over to the combat sim later, and that really won't be ideal.

"Around you a battle will be taking place, a defensive position on a FOB is going to be attacked by rogues of the UNSC, their aim to simply disrupt. You are not to participate in combat unless necessary for your own self defence, you will be equipped with a basic Medic load-out: light armour, MA7AP assault rifle with select fire and silencer, M6C/SOCOM silenced sidearm, your own personal combat knifes issued to you on earth, Bio-foam 2 canisters per person, tourniquets 3 per person, 4 Morphine syringes single dose per person, a hard light field amputation knife, and a hard light two man field stretcher.

"Your task is simply to evacuate injured men off of the battle field to an RV where a pelican will be waiting for you, use any means to get them there, the AI is interactive, so giving orders to a soldier will equal it carrying out that order, however be careful, you may end up causing more casualties. We want these men alive and in a fit condition to be able to be healed and made fit for battle, so only amputate limbs if no other options lay, there is no moral right or wrong in first aid, work off of what you think is right. Simulation will stop if you take too long, one of you get injured to the point of needing aid or 3 casualties die from their injuries without being treated."

"Affirmative" each of them said in succession, Leticia being the first and already writing note on her hand and checking the ink on her marker pen.

"Simulation start in 2 minutes, make your way down the corridor to the holo-deck and you will be given your equipment."

The kids left the room, Leticia second in line, Jordan ahead, Max and Kyle taking up the rear walking in a pair. Once inside the children were each handed a bag of holo-skeletons, a skeleton body harness a rifle skeleton, magnum skeleton, and knife handles. No actual items are ever taken onto a holo-deck. All weapons and equipment are projected onto the skeletons, on weapons the only working parts simply being a removable magazine, usable bolt and trigger. Knifes had the blades projected from the handle and any and all equipment was projected onto holo-skeletons which could vary from a syringe to a full mobile shield generator. Body armour would be projected onto harnesses.

"30 seconds to simulation" Arawn came over the intercom and flickered onto a life-size holo-pad to the entrance to the holo-deck "Good luck kids, remember: it's only a sim."

"Thanks Arawn" each said as they walked past. Arawn re-shaped his beret on his head, calculating the stress levels of each child by the wave forms of their voices, logging it. Leticia was calmest to no surprise. Jordan was nervously exited, Max and Kyle were worried yet also exited. He logged this and sent it to Commander Davies and Tia for further interpretation and for further records. He would also analyse the waveforms of their voices throughout the sim to detect over stress, panic and shock in order to stop the sim if needed, all records would be deleted from his servers after the sim was completed.

"10 seconds to simulation"

"Good luck guys, remember stick together, use coms, don't panic, pause, and get help."

"5….4…3…2…1…Simulation starting"

A low buzz was heard as the room filled with holograms, this was quickly silenced by nearby gunfire as the scene loaded in using hexagons as pixels, starting off as indefinable then finally creating a hyper realistic scene. The kids were stood in the back of a pelican, simulated physics took hold, the pelican banked left and the children were thrown into the left hand seats

"Remember your briefing?" The pilot of the pelican shouted back to the hold, "In and out, as quick as you can, but as safe as you can."

The kids clicked a button on their tac-pad confirming what the pilot had said with a series of green dots on his screen, each of the children could also see three dots, one for each of them, all flickering green in confirmation. The pelican landed with a light thud against the dew sodden grass in the woodland clearing, just a 5 minute sprint to the FOB. The cargo door lowered and the kids ran out, in patrol order, Jordan leading, Leticia following, followed by Max, then Kyle scanning the Rear. They cleared the area, ensuring no ambush was in wait for the pelican. Then sprinted to the FOB.

"Are you the Evac?" shouted a soldier on a fortification

"Yeah, what's the damage soldier?" Jordan shouted

"An enemy force, twice if not triple our size is attacking from the north, we have 6 base turrets up, fortifications fully manned and mortars firing, but the turrets are low on ammunition and they are what is holding the majority of the forces back. When they go down we may be over run." The soldier gave various hand gestures pointing in the direction of the enemy and the turrets.

"Affirmative. Leticia, Max, go treat the wounded over there on the parade square, get them fighting if you can, Kyle we are going to go to the front and get people to the parade square."

Three green blips appeared on Jordan's tack pad.

"What's your name, soldier?"

"Corporal Smith"

"Alright Corporal, I want you to help out Leticia and Max, anything they ask, got it?"

"Yes sir"

Leticia made it to the parade square, 5 men, and 2 women sat against walls and laying on the floor. "Max, go help those two" she pointed in the direction of two men, one walking around aimlessly, white as a sheet, the other with a serious gunshot laceration from a close call with a bullet to his right arm, tearing just enough of his bicep to make it un-usable for firing.

Leticia set about rallying some help from the station medics, send one to treat a man with a shot to the knee and thigh, another to a woman with a dismembered arm and lower leg.

She calmly walked over to a male soldier laying on the floor, his armour removed and under-shirt ripped open to reveal a shotgun wound.

"I'm so dead, a shotgun to the chest, no-one is surviving that, I'm dead" the man was repeating himself over and over.

"Hey! What's your name mate?" Leticia said to the man when only a few feet away, removing a holo-skeleton from her bag which immediately formed into a bio-foam canister. Another one turned into a morphine jab.

"My name? George, Lewis. Lance corporal."

"Well lance corporal George, I promise you, you are fine. Here's something for the pain though." She jabbed the man's thigh with the morphine syringe, injecting the painkiller into his body.

"You got family George?"

The man was calming, although sill repeating the same words when not talking about anything else. "Yeah, a wife and kid… Will I see them again?"

"Yes, I promise" she applied the bio-foam to his chest, filling some of the deeper wounds. Any metal would be excreted through the foam after a few minutes of application. "Do me a favour George? Can you stay here for me until I come back in a few minutes?"

"Y-yeah sure, thank you"

"It's alright" Leticia's attention turned to Max, she called him over coms "how's it going?"

"Yeah not bad, I applied bio-foam to the arm guy and I've got the other guy that was in shock talking, They should be alright, how about you?"

"Yeah I've fixed one guy up, heading to a bad one now, talk in a bit"

A green light appeared on her tac-pad, Max's light. The next guy was dying. A laceration to his face by a bullet, penetrating injuries to the chest, just missing his vital organs, one shot to the thigh, millimetres away from his femoral artery (if it had been just a mil closer, the artery would have bled and he would have died within one minute due to blood loss). He also had a concussion, and bloodshot eye (blinded no doubt).Leticia patched him us as best she could, but he died from a slow internal bleed and faded out of the sim.

Jordan came over the headset to Leticia, "1 walking wounded and 1 in a stretcher in bound" Leticia looked up to the security doors to the outer walls and say the 3 injured along with Jordan and Kyle. Jordan and Kyle carrying the third man.

"This one has a broken right leg and a head trauma." Jordan shouted "this one on the left has a shot to his arm.

"Lay that one down here, we'll patch them up and get out of here" Leticia called back. Jordan and Kyle placed the stretcher down and ran off to help other people, Jordan saw to the man with the shot arm, Kyle went over and assisted Max who was treating his third casualty.

Leticia used another morphine jab on the man with the broken leg and inspected his leg. On examination she found the bone sticking out from the skin. The bone was shattered into 5 pieces. Two parts visible from the wound, 3 more could be felt through the skin. "I'm sorry, your leg is shattered in 5 places. All I can do is splint it and hope the guys back home can fix it or amputate it, you choice"

The man looked at Leticia in agony, his face streaked with dirt and tear tracks. "Cut it off, it's caused me enough trouble over the years" He laid his head back down, preparing for the removal of his leg.

Leticia took the hard light saw from her back and prepared it for use. The saw was heated and vibrated rapidly to trick the nerve endings into not feeling the cutting and cauterising the blood vessels as it went through. She lined the saw up 2 inches below his knee and cut through. The man squirmed and grimaced, smelling his burning flesh and hearing the singe of meat and blood. Leticia found the bone and dragged the serrated blade across. The vibrating saw made a squeal as it bit into the calcium and further into the marrow. Once through the man relaxed (as much as you can relax while having your leg sawn off). The singe of flesh retuned and the leg was held on simply by the calf muscle. Leticia cut through and the leg came free, no blood sprung due to the instant cauterisation. She wrapped the leg in a cloth and placed it to the side, calling Jordan and Kyle to pick up the stretcher.

"Hey, do you have any transport here?" she asked a nearby soldier.

"Yeah, one M831 TT, You need it?" The soldier replied, out of breath

"Yeah, can you get it for me?"

"Yes ma'am" The soldier ran off

"Mortar!" A whizz followed by a bang, a spray of mud and dust and a scream. Leticia ran to the impact site. The exact spot Lance Corporal George was left. Parts of his holographic body strewn all over the ground and slowly faded out.

"Jordan, we need to get out of here!" Another mortar shell struck the wall just as the warthog drove through the gate just a few meters away, sending rubble through the roll cage.

"I hadn't noticed!" Jordan replied. Shaking his head and throwing his arms into the air. "Kyle! Get over here, we need to get that stretcher onto the hog!"

Kyle ran over to the stretcher and helped Jordan lift it onto the Hog's rear bed. Fitting it down into the foot well of the rear seating. "Anyone who can walk, get over here and find a seat!"

Another mortar struck, followed by another soon after, both just 20 meters away. Leticia grabbed the nearest guy and helped him to the hog. Another mortar landed just 15 meters away, shrapnel hit Leticia's back, her armour absorbing the impact.

"Is everybody in?" Jordan shouted over the whizz of mortars and crack of gunshots in the distance. Leticia pushed the last man into the passenger seat and used a karabiner and rope to fasten herself to the side of the roll cage, all seats were full. 

"Yeah" called Leticia as the 3 boys also hooked onto the hog, two on each side, Jordan on the same side as Leticia, equipping their weapons ready to defend, handing their magnums to 4 more able bodied soldiers.

"Drive!" Max and Kyle shouted in sync to the driver. The mortars went quiet just as 3 in a row hit the same piece of wall, destroying it. Rogues ran through, spraying their weapons across the courtyard, soldiers defending the base screamed and gurgled as they choked on their own blood.

"Fire at will!" Shouted Jordan, the 4 children picked off rogues one by one, the soldiers with magnums laying down suppressing spray fire. The hog sped off, the sudden acceleration throwing Jordan off balance, he fell, caught by his safety rope.

"That's Karma for getting sassy with me!" Leticia called offering Jordan a hand.

"Ha-ha very funny" Jordan climbed back up and resumed shooting back at the rogues, the hog at top speed swerving through the woods to the pelican site.

"Last mag!" Max shouted

"Same" Jordan called, Leticia offered Jordan another mag, Kyle offered max.

"One minute!" shouted the driver. The pelican's engines could be heard over the warthogs and the heavy gun fire.

The hog came into the clearing, lined up with the back of the pelican in one wide drift and drove forwards, the cargo doors open, the hog drove in and hit the front wall.

"Jesus…." The Pelican rear doors closed and accelerated off into the sky Metallic dings and pops faded out as the Rogues shot up at the escaping transport.

Everything slowly faded white as the simulation finished.

"Mission successful, total preventable deaths: 2." Award read as the light grew brighter, forcing the children to close their eyes. Seconds later, the light faded and the children opened their eyes again, then proceeded to walk out of the holo-deck, handing their holo-skeletons back in.

"Half an hour break, here I come!" cheered Kyle, running off to the canteen, followed by Max. Jordan and Leticia walked together to the lounge and sat on the memory-gel sofas.

"Good work Tish" Jordan said, turning the holographic TV on.

"You too J" She replied, sinking into the gel seat.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hey guys thanks for reading yet another chapter :D

This one is a tad longer than the previous chapters (By a tad…. I mean literally double the average of the previous ones). As always feel free to like the FB page at the usual facebook address just with …

/Halowhitehoods

…Added onto the end.

Don't forget to favourite and review, Until next chapter

~FAIL


	12. May the Father of Understanding Guide us

XII

May the father of understanding guide us.

30.1 Light years from earth is the planet Gamma Pavonis, part of the Gamma Pavonis system. The planet was the witness to a battle in 2550 in which a covenant vessel and the UNSC Hilbert collided, sending both ships into the planet's surface. 50 years later, a small expedition craft visited the site, finding most of both ships intact (as intact as you could be after a collision then atmospheric re-entry) on the surface. About the time of the conception of the White Hoods project, 2622, a small group of men and women went out to the planet to colonise the foreign planet.

"We've come a long way." The man in the black trench coat said across the table.

"Yes, we have grown quickly, however not quick enough." This man wore a similar coat, however in a dark grey with red trimmings around the collar.

"What do you mean? Our colony has grown from just a few thousand to nearly a million in just 10 years, by 2650 we'll be at least two, maybe three million strong." A third man, wearing a grey lab coat with a data pad in hand said

"Yes, but that is another 14 years yet." Pointed out the second man

"Your point?" the first man replied, he had an agitated tone in his voice.

"My point, Grand Master, is that the UNSC is getting stronger, not by man power, by 4 men specifically, one of which is a girl, all of which no older than 15 Earth years old." He stood up, nigh on shouting at his senior. "I apologise, sir"

"You fear…. Children? They will be no issue, we already have enough defences to destroy most potential invaders, at least anything up to a Marathon heavy Cruiser, and within the next 5 years we will be able to destroy Gorgon-class Destroyers."

"I'm sure they have much more than that."

"What do you suggest?"

"We send a scout. A man who will infiltrate and learn about this project. One that will report back to us."

"And what will this achieve?" The Grand Master was curious

"An understanding in our enemies. We don't even know what they are called, all I know is that there are 4 children being trained by the UNSC to be the best soldiers ever produced. I hear rumour of a very large ship dedicated to their training and housing."

"I see." The Grand Master stroked his beard, "Send our newest member, Jack Chaff, it can be his proving test"

"Of Course, is that all Master Tabak?"

The Grand Master waved his hand "May the Father of Understanding guide us" he muttered

"May the Father of Understanding guide us" repeated all those around the table.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hey guys, sorry for the really long delay on this chapter and I'm really sorry it's so short, I just had a brain wave and thought I'd write it into a chapter, I've been really hard pressed for ideas for chapters recently so any input from anyone will be amazing, what do you guys want to know about?

Hopefully this is a little bit of a teaser for what's happening in my head currently, all I will say is plot twist ahead, so watch out ;)

Kool aid man (review on chapter 11) "No offense but aren't Assassins supposed to work in the dark? Not in big organizations like the UNSC? They are a secretive group.

BTW nice story bro!"

Kool aid man, in response to your question, indeed they are, I hope by this chapter you see that information about them is relatively difficult to find, and I would exactly say working in the UNSC, they are more like an ONI to the UNSC, a sort of higher-up sub division if that makes any sense. They are just being trained by the UNSC currently (due to no actual line of Assassin brotherhoods being left). But anyway, thanks, and I hope I have answered your wonderings. :P

I'll have a new chapter out hopefully by the end of September, however I have a 2 week holiday coming up so I shall be away from all means of writing for that time period, I get reviews through e-mail though so, as usual, put any improvements, suggestions or questions in a review and send it my way.

The Facebook page is available if you'd like to ask me a question and get it answered quicker than the next chapter release, or if you have any fan-art of my fan-fic I'd be more than happy to publish it. The address is the same, ( /halowhitehoods ), exclude the brackets and simply add it onto the end of the normal facebook URL.

Till next time,

~FAIL


	13. Into the Past

XIII

Into the past

Commander Davies sat in his room, the lights dimmed, and window light filters set to minimum. He sat at his desk, unable to sleep that night. He flicked on the holo display on his desk and started to research things. Master Chief, Spartan IIIs, Noble 6, the Diadact, the Arbiter, the Human-Covenant war, and lastly, the Assassin's Creed.

Tia flicked on the hold pad to Davie's right side, yawning and stretching as if just asleep, it was almost midnight in relation to their orbit above earth. "Good evening Commander, is everything alright?" she said, ceasing to yawn and placing her arms back by her sides gracefully. Her hair dim and limp.

"Yes, I couldn't sleep so I decided to delve further into the Assassins." Davies rubbed his stubbly chin. "The only trace of any creed I can find is an ancient Codex written by Altair"

Tia searched around for the same codex, taking seconds to find it, Davies had taken almost an hour. "I see." Tia read the passage "the Creed cannot be killed, even if all of its followers are…. The creed is an idea, even if all records of the Creed are destroyed, another will eventually re-invent it"

"Indeed, yet anywhere I search I can't find a trace of the actual..." Davies paused "…creed."

"All records have been destroyed, so another must re-invent it" Tia pointed out, her hair glowing slightly brighter

"I'll leave that for the children. Tomorrow, teach them basic rules of engagement, then challenged them to create their own rules on proper engagement of targets."

"Scheduled"

"Right, now, we already know the Assassins fought a faction known as 'Templars', we learned that in the research conducted back in the conception of this project"

"Indeed, all traces of them disappeared in the 2100's"

"Can you bring that source back up for me?" Davies wasn't quite sure. After all, the Assassins bloodlines disappeared from history around the 2100s also…

"On screen now, what are you looking for?"

"To see if they actually have disappeared… or" Tia cut him off

"…or if they have survived, like our little assassins?"

"Exactly that. Can you do a census scan of all known inhabited star systems? Take notice of religious backgrounds specifically"

"Working. Approximate finishing time: 10 minutes" Tia scanned through hundreds of trillions of censuses, searching for the key words of "Templar", "Knight's Order", or anything else possibly related.

"Great, that puts her out of action for a while…" Davies read through the article and became interested on one point:

"The Templars, later 'Abstergo Industries', became highly wealthy and powerful, owning companies such as the Ford Motor company, NASA, the CIA, the US Federal Reserve, Kraft, Coca-Cola, and BP. Abstergo played large parts in the Moon landings and later space travel into the 2050s. By 2090, Abstergo had perfected interstellar travel, keeping it for their own use, denying access of use by anyone but Abstergo employees.

"It was later discovered that this technology had been used by Abstergo to send scouting parties to nearby solar systems, to no avail. Each party sent return messages to they're headquarters on Earth stating their findings and any potential, then sent themselves crashing into the nearby star to prevent later discovery.

"Another 50 years rolled by, Abstergo kept quiet following threats of being overthrown by the government and the general public due to a massive publicity leak releasing documents concerning secret missions back in the 1930-50s, specifically around the war time. During this quiet time, Abstergo conducted research into orbital habitation.

"Come 2160, an orbital habitation ring was designed by Abstergo, large enough to house all important members of the group. Construction started on a small scale, with plans to be finished by 2230, however this was accelerated with the release of more secret documents. The structure was finished in 2187 and fully inhabited by 2190. The ring was placed into orbit around Mars, in such a way that it never showed to the face of Earth. Abstergo collapsed shortly after the retreat of the leaders. It is not known whether or not the ring is still inhabited or not"

"I'm done commander" Tia said, "No matches"

"Good work Tia, what do you make of this?"

"Interesting…. Well, we are in the sol system, I'll have scout drones sent to mars, both surface and orbital to look for any evidence. It would appear that it is nearly 500 years old, so any survivors are unlikely."

"Maybe they'll be clues as to where they next went… if anywhere"

"Yes, do we really want to be digging this up so early though? It's another 6 years till all of the kids will be ready for ops, 4 years for Jordan and Leticia"

Davies though for a moment. Scratching his stubble more. "Scout mars, collect data, process it and find out what you can, then archive it. We'll take no further action after that until 2641, 6 years' time."

"Yes sir, anything else?"

"Can you prioritise training in weapons and armour systems for the kids, I'd like to run them through a bunch of combat sims over the next month."

"Yes sir, any weapons in particular?"

"Let them choose out of the standard armoury."

"Scheduled sir, I'll tutor them one on one."

"Thank you, that's all"

Tia briefly glowed brighter then faded out, a few trails of dust flowing around the pad, quickly fading out. Davies shut down his computer and went to his armour display case, checking it was still in reasonable order, he messaged Arawn to have his armour sent off for maintenance. The case rotated into the wall and was replaced with a monitor displaying progress. Davies left it and went to bed.

AUTHORS NOTE

Hey guys, Thanks for sticking with it :D

Keep leaving reviews, I love reading your opinions on this, I've also noticed that this is actually Google-able (typing Halo White Hoods into google will come up with this as the top result, followed by the facebook page bellow)

As always, thanks for reading, next chapter will be out as soon as I can, I'm thinking about skipping a few years, tell me what you think.

For now

~FAIL


	14. First Contact

Section 2

First Contact

"CONTACT LEFT!" Kyle shouted down the radio coms as a round struck the armour plating on his shoulder, bouncing off and leaving a slight scratch. Jordan immediately repeated the order, the 4 Assassins pivoted to their left side, fired off two rounds and ducked into the nearest cover, Jordan stood behind a thick tree.

"Enemy force of approximately 20 lightly armoured insurgents with one stolen UNSC warthog, armed with Tri-barrel chain gun." Tia sounded through the Assassin's helmets, gaining the information from the shortest glimpse at the enemy. She posted the information in short form in their HUD.

Jordan imediatley knew what to do. "Max, left flank, Leticia, on me, Kyle, find a vantage point and put that sniper to use." Like a well-oiled machine they dispersed, Jordan sprinting to a nearby trench, Kyle climbed a tree and Max, using a power assisted run, ran around to the side.

"Letti, you remember that manoeuvre we did in our first battle sim?" said Jordan

"With the troop hog?" Jordan nodded, Letti offered a fist pound, he accepted. Kyle and Max were also listening.

"For this to work, Kyle must kill the enemy hog gunner, then clear the 3 insurgents blocking your clear path to the hog. If one shot equals one kill then that is one mag. Max, you run around to the rear of the hog, then silently kill the driver and passenger. Jordan and Leticia, you're both armed with SAWs, so sprinting at them will be fine. I will boost your shields for a short time." The 4 assassins confirmed their orders.

Jordan waited for a brief cease in the enemy fire, "GO!" Kyle killed the gunner, who was mid-way through a reload, then he targeted and killed the 3 insurgents. The last 50. Calibre bullet hit a rock behind it's victim and exploded into a cloud of shrapnel, killing 2 more men. Then the sound of the heavy sniper echoed through the forest, too late for the victims to react.

"nice shootin' shot Tex" Max tried impersonating a Texan accent.

"Thanks partner" Kyle joined, Leticia giggled and Jordan just rolled his eyes.

Max reached the rear of the hog, and using his silenced DMR capped the driver, then sprinted up to the seat and stabbed the passenger in the back of the neck with his hard-light hidden blade.

"3…2…1… spray and pray" Jordan and Leticia simultaneously rose from the small bund, sprinted forwards and did precisely the opposite, accurately firing a burst of 10 rounds into each insurgent sending each flying backward.

"Kyle, get your ass over hear, you're dragging behind damn it" Jordan said sarcastically, the others laughed.

"Yes, yes, coming Sir Whinge-a-lot" They all laughed.

The 4 assassins loaded up in the vehicle. Leticia drove, Jordan was in shotgun, Max on the gun and Kyle awkwardly squished being the roll frame and the machine gun, using his 50. Cal to scan ahead.

"Well done Assassins, itel states that this hog belonged to a military base about 10 clicks south east, they'd be grateful for its return." Tia streamed a recording from the group's head cam back to the Fear Naught, in orbit overhead.

"Only a short drive then, shall we take the scenic route?" Jordan bought up a map in his HUD, finding the base. Fort Sinclair. He calculated a route and passed it to Leticia to navigate.

"Right, hoods off, lets enjoy the ride." The Assassin's segmented hoods folded down into a raised collar, the energy shield staying. Jordan had done his hair that morning, spiking it into a near perfect fauxhawk. However, the mission they had just completed was sprung on them last minute, requiring them to ride a specialised Spartan drop pod (equipped with the machines to fully armour the assassins even while dropping through atmosphere) down to the surface of the planet, the hood had flattened his hair. Jordan sighed and tried to stick it back up using the remnants of product he had put into it, to no prevail. Max, on the gun, opted to keep his hood on, knowing, as a sniper himself, that snipers love to headshot the gunners off of moving hogs. Kyle removed his hood and relaxed the sniper out of his shoulder. Leticia also removed her hood, her hair catching in the wind, but being prevented from trailing by the energy shield.

This was the planet Reach, terraformed over the past nearly 100 years back to its natural state and recolonized by Humans. Reach was still scarred from the Glassing of the human-Covenant war, children often bringing home pebble side lumps of solidified molten dirt, sand and other things unfortunate enough to be stuck under the beam. Craters also formed where the glassing beams initially fired, followed by a massing trench behind them where the beam was dragged across the surface, forming valleys and ponds that, ironically enough, would now be heaven for plants and wild life.

Distant gunshots were heard. As with all human colonies, insurgency was an issue still, however not as bad as pre-war. The main reason for their rebellion being the belief against being allied with the covenant, despite the many technological and cultural advancements gained from this alliance.

5 miles outside of fort Sinclair was New Dover, a town on a coast line, with steep white cliffs of calk. This town was not initially built on reach, it is new since the re-colonisation and was formed from the glassing of a coastline, once parallel to the coast forming the long cliff face, then a second perpendicular to the coast line, starting in the ocean and coming out, forming the valley that the town sat in. It was named after the town Dover, in the South East of England, for no other reason than that the lay of the land was very similar.

About 20 minutes later at a steady 60 Km/h the Assassins arrived at Fort Sinclair. The gate rose on the approach of the warthog, allowing them to drive straight through to the vehicle hangar. They parked, accepted thanks from the vehicle managers and then went to the NAAFI. NAAFI was a small bar, enough room for several serving points and 23 bar stools, Jordan counted each one out of habit of observation. 15 of the stools were taken, groups of four to five men and women standing around each, a non-alcoholic beverage in each of their hands. Varying from Coke, to Fanta, to soda and lime, even the odd water. 5 seating booths were also available, 3 of which taken one other with dirty glasses and bottles belonging to the group of marines that left just as the Assassins walked in.

The assassins, all of age now, sat at the far end of the bar, away from everyone. Despite being popular in public eye, the military groups were still sketchy of them, especially considering they just walked into a bar, fully armoured and armed….

"Excuse me… Spartans…? You're not allowed weapons in h..."

Tia interrupted the bar tender, coming on over the juke box system. "Please excuse the White Hoods, they are just back from eliminating a force of 20 insurgents plus a loaded warthog. Furthermore, they are under ONI protection, so bar rules, unfortunately, are invalid for them, however they are required to act appropriately in this environment. Thanks you."

The music resumed, Jordan nodded at the bar tender and handed him a list of drinks. One Jager Bomb, triple shot, made with Rockstar Gauava flavour instead of Redbull; one Summer Fruits Kopparberg, one Guinness, and a whiskey and coke, double shot.

The bar tender, almost frozen with shock after his juke box got invaded by an AI, then told that the 4 people sitting at his bar are basically on a free leash, then being handed a list of drinks by one of them, all of which alcoholic.

He served them, they cheersed and drunk. After about half an hour, the group finished and left, the bar tender stared as the left.

"A pelican is waiting for you drunkards on the landing pad"

"Thanks Tia… but I think we'll need something bigger than a…BIRD" Jordan laughed at his joke, the others caught on shortly after, faking being drunk.

"Hilarious" she replied.

"We'll be there in 2, are you flying? Think I'm a little over the limit…oh wait there isn't one for space ships" he laughed again,

Leticia intervened with the back and forth, "2 minutes Tia, we'll be there, it's the energy drinks"

"I know, his alcohol levels aren't even raising above 0.01%...surprising for a triple shot of 40% Jager…"

"I think the suits do a bit of filtering… you know that thing you installed that filters airborne, ingested and injected toxins?"

"I see your point… I'll forward this to our lab."

They arrived at the pelican and flew up to the Fear Naught, their next destination: Earth.

"WE are in a stable geostationary orbit above London, Sir. Ground time is currently 2 am"

"Thank you Arawn, any incoming flights?" Grey responded.

"No Sir, air space is clear"

"Alright, send the hanger crew to rest."

"Aye aye sir." Arawn announces to the hanger, "All hanger crew dismissed for break. 10 hours of free time. Back to your duties at 12 noon."

The hangar emptied, the crew heading off to their quarters or on-board bar.

At 4am, the hangar doors opened for a brief moment before closing again. Allowing a single, stealth vessel into the hanger. Not of UNSC origin, therefore not in position of any trackers, the 4 man crew of this ship managed to hack into the ships mainframe and open the doors, without alerting Arawn, nor the ships defences. 3 of the crew disembarked, the other flew the craft back down to Earth, again opening the hangar door only briefly.

One of the men was dressed in a long white robe, with a peaked hood. He was unarmed, unlike his two companions.

The other two men were dressed in uniform. Steel toe boots, adapted for free-running, baggy cargo trousers in a plain grey colour, a long grey coat with a split tail, and several buckles. They wore white collared shirts, top two buttons undone, showing a matching necklace around their necks. The two men were armed with only an extended magazine pistol, holstered as well as their own hidden blades, traditional styled. All of the men featured a red silk belt, the buckle, matching the necklace, being a large Assassin symbol.

AUTHORS NOTE

I apologise for the stupidly long delay on this one, hope you guys enjoyed it, I should be posting more frequently but no promises :/ Anyway, thanks for reading, favourite, follow and review to let me know your thoughts :D


	15. Uninvited Allies

XV

Uninvited allies

The two men in the grey uniforms flanked either side of the man in the white robe, staying a few feet back from him. The one on the left hand side fiddled with a holo-tac-pad on his wrist, hacking into the ships systems and opening the entrance door in front of the group.

Tia was alerted by the door opening, immediately checking security feeds and ship actions (recorded automatically on any event happening, including the flush of a toilet). "Sir, the main hangar door was opened…. Briefly…. Security cameras show nothing entering or leaving, but 3 mean appear to disembark from some kind of stealth ship inside the hangar…. Then the hangar doors opened again. This is strange, the men are currently on H corridor on the Port side of the ship, shall I alert a marine squad?" Tia was already dialling numbers and putting several squads on standby.

"What? Impossible. No, someone who could hack past an UNSC Infinity class cyber security must be here for a damn good reason, and those 3 men will want to get to that reason. Seal the bridge, lock down all residential corridors, alert the crew… silently. Put the White Hoods on standby. Arawn, why didn't you spot this?" Captain Grey was worried, not panicked however, he had once been boarded by 3 Covenant Phantoms, and he used a similar method to deal with them as he was now.

"Done. White Hoods are suiting up. All crew at battle stations except the port hangar crew, residential areas locked down." Tia had completed each action as Grey ordered it.

"I…I didn't… Unable to compute." Arawn was stuck in a loop.

"Alright, alright, just deal with it. Mechanical locks on all hangar doors, inside and out, get 2 squads of marines up here, one inside the bridge, one on the door, then lock us down"

"Done sir, marines inbound" Arawn replied.

"Sir, the hangar doors have been shut….and mechanically locked. The bridge has been sealed, all residential areas locked down…. Something called the 'White Hoods' has been put on standby… and marines have been dispatched to the bridge, all crew are at battle stations except the ones for this hangar" The man on his tac pad read of information as it happened.

"Good work L, these 'White Hoods' must be what we're here for. Get me a line to the bridge"

While the man on the right hand side pushed forward into the corridor, L moved back so the trio were in a single file line for moving through the corridors. L started hacking into the mainframe, and opened up a coms line between his commander and the Fear Naught's bridge.

"Captain, we have an incoming call from ONI… shall I take it?" Awarn reported

Grey hesitated "no, put it on speaker, I have a feeling it isn't ONI who is on the end of that line…. Record it too"

The speaker system buzzed to life, interference came through the speakers as if the signal was traveling from earth to the ship….or straight through several meter thick solid titanium decks.

"Captain Grey, this is K, I am part of the Brotherhood of British Assassins. BOBA for short."

"K, I must, for the record, inform you that this call is being recorded and that you are trespassing on a UNSC vessel. While you have not made an insurgency attempts as of yet…" Grey was cut off.

"…insurgency attempts as of yet a full task force is on standby to deal with any potential threat. I must also inform you that you are being recorded, both video and audio, and that any attempt to access the bridge will be met with lethal force. Got it"

"Very well. What is your propose on board my ship, K?"

"I was hoping you could tell me that Captain Grey, you see it has come to our attention that you have been training 4 teenagers as a new generation of super soldiers…. Using assassin techniques. And from intelligence we have gathered simply walking down this corridor, I can tell you that they are codenamed the 'White Hoods'. It has also come to my attention that we seek a common goal of sorts"

"And that would be?"

"To deter terrorism on all levels of society, keep peace across human colonies, and destroy strategic targets that may threaten the future of humanity."

"I see, so why then are you undertaking a minor terrorist act in boarding a UNSC vessel?"

The 2 squads of marines arrived at the bridge, one squad equipped with 4S AWs, 2 shotguns, and 2 machine gun turrets for inside the bridge, the other with 4 SAWs, 4 shotguns for outside, as well as 2 fold out armour walls for blockades.

"To assist you"

"K, I'm going to have to ask you and your friends to make your way to the mess hall. In which you will be greeted by 8 Spartans, 2 squads of marines, and the White Hoods. I will have to ask you to drop any weapons on the floor in the corridor you currently stand in and make your way to the elevator. In the elevator you do not press a single button, or you will be dropped out of the bottom of the ship in a free fall to earth, the elevator will take you to the mess hall and nowhere else."

"I assure you we mean no harm, we will be keeping our weapons. I will inform you of their nature however, I carry no weapons. My two companions, 'L' behind me and 'T' to my front each carry extended magazine magnums, 4 spare mags, and twin hidden blades."

"It's not up to me, as soon as you're in that mess hall you are under the jurisdiction of Lieutenant Dean, and I assure you he won't want you carrying magnums, so I'd recommend leaving those."

K nodded to his companions as they entered the elevator, they dropped their magnums and spare mags in the corridor and made their way to the mess hall. Three beeps sounded and the call ended. The elevator doors sprung open to reveal an assortment of gun barrels facing at the elevator.

"Place your hands on the back of your heads, walk slowly out." Dean took on a commanding voice, using his suit's voice amplifying to create an ominous tone in the room.

K walked out the elevator forward, while L and T walked backwards, scanning the area behind and above the trio, spotting Kyle wielding his 50. Cal and Jordan with a SAW, flanked by 4 marines on each side, all with assault rifles. On each side of the elevator was 2 Spartans, all four holding shotguns, two for each grey cloaked man. To the front stood the remaining 4 Spartans, including Dean, each wielding a DMR, with Leticia and Max stood slightly behind the Spartans, Leticia with a SAW, and Max wielding a BR. The second squad of marines was stood on the left and right flanks, four each side, 2 on each side wielding shotguns, and the other two with SAWs.

"Over kill much?" K exclaimed

"Not taking any chances, we don't like when our security systems are overridden so easily"

"Understandable, If I wanted to I could have ejected everyone on board into space…. Or fired the MAC straight into earth or another orbiting ship. We could have installed an undetectable Malware that would slowly leak information to us, while deleting it from your severs, or turned all your AIs rampant immediately through constant DDOS from every computer in Human space."

"Indeed. Try that now and you won't live to see the effects. Take a knee right there in the centre of the floor."

Dean took out his magnum and shot a tracer round at the floor, making a mark precisely where he wanted the trio to kneel. The floor and walls were coated in a ricochet preventing coating to prevent collateral damage from situations such as standoffs, an addition made to the Fear Naught by Captain Grey after his standoff with the covenant in a mess hall of his previous ship, in which it turned out the majority of his men were actually harmed by friendly ricochets rather than covenant weapons.

The three men kneels on the floor, hands behind their heads, the 4 Spartans behind the trio stopped a few feet back, keeping their weapons trained on the Assassins.

"Captain Grey, the boarders have been contained."

A door opened on the balcony and Grey stepped out, accompanied by the two squads of marines that were protecting the bridge, these marines took up positions along the corridor and trained their weapons on the trio.

"Thank you Lieutenant" grey responded "Now, There are two ways this can go. Either you are straight up with us, honest, nothing withheld, or the one where you are shot into pulps and disposed of in the furnaces. And honestly I'd rather not bloody my Mess hall, it would be….messy."

"On your terms Captain. What do you want to know?" K responded, unphased.

"Where are you from?"

With no delay K responded "London"

"Your name?"

"K" again no hesitation was present

"Your real name. The one you was born with"

"Kye"

"Who do you work for?"

"BOBA"

"What is BOBA?"

"You'll find out soon enough" Dean Shot a magnum roundat the floor directly next to Kye

"That's enough Lieutenant, What do you mean we'll find out?"

"Well the plan was to take you back down to London, with an escort of course, and show you"

"Show me what?"

"BOBA"

"You're not making this easy Kye"

"Captain, you're simply not asking the right question, I'd like to talk to Commander Davies and the White Hoods….alone."

Grey turned to a marine by his side and muttered in his ear, "Go fetch Davies, send him to High Security Interview Room 7, and activate the internal turrets"

The marine walked calmly from the door then ran down the corridors, doing as he was commanded

"You are aware that your two companions will have to stay here under armed guard, while you are escorted to a HSIR by two squads of marines and the White Hoods?"

"Indeed"

"..And you have no issue with that?"

"As long as the Commander, the White Hoods, and I are left alone in the HSIR with no audio recording equipment"

"Video only. You will be targeted by two automated machine gun turrets and exterminated if you try anything funny"

"I am aware"

"Right, on your feet. Dean, escort him to HSIR 7."

Kye stood up and waited to be cuffed, Dean cuffed him and walked him into the corridor where the two sets of marines from the bridge met them. The White Hoods followed.

The group got to the HSIR, two rooms adjacent to one another, serrated by 100mm of bullet proof glass. The prisoner room has two turrets hanging from the ceiling, the chair was solid steel and wielded to the floor with thick nanofiber straps to keep a prisoner detained, even the strongest sangheili warriors would struggle to break them, and tests using fully armoured Spartans were conducted, the micro hydraulics and Spartan's muscles burned out before the straps broke, other tests led to dislocation of elbows, shoulders, breaking of the wrists, one Spartan broke his own back while trying to thrust his way out.

The walls were solid steel, lead lined to prevent wireless communications, and an air-lock styled door provided the only entry and exit, a system implemented into the door meant that if the inside door was opened without the outside door being opened first, rapid depressurisation would occur, killing the occupant.

The other room was standard interview room, audio recording equipment, cameras of all types including specialist ones that can see energy shields on any type, and a panic button which, once pressed, will activate the turrets in the room then open the inside door of the prisoner room.

The doors to the prisoner room was opened and held by a marine for each door. Kye was sat in the chair and straps applied around his ankles and wrists. The turrets were activated on standby and the doors shut, each marine declaring "clear" as they released the doors.

Davies entered the interviewer room.

"Are you seated comfortably?"


End file.
